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CALIFORNIA 


LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


CALIFORNIA          LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


A/ 

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ITY   OF    CALIFORNIA 

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LIBRARY   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


ITY   OF   CALIFORNIA         LIBRARY    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA 


GREAT    COMMANDERS 

*  *  *  * 


GENERAL   JACKSON 


BY 


JAMES    PARTON 


NEW    YORK 
D.     APPLETON     AND     COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1892, 
BY  D.   APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


A II  rights  reserved. 


ESS 


PREFACE. 


THE  military  life  of  Andrew  Jackson  lasted  nine 
years,  of  which  about  two  years  were  passed  in  the  field. 
He  was  in  no  proper  sense  of  the  word  a  professional 
soldier,  and  he  resented  the  phrase  "military  chieftain  " 
which  Henry  Clay,  knowing  its  irritating  power,  so 
often  applied  to  him.  He  was  simply  a  Tennessee  far 
mer  and  militia-general  who,  when  his  country  was  in 
vaded,  led  his  neighbors  and  fellow-citizens  to  its  de 
fense.  In  doing  this  duty  of  a  citizen  he  displayed 
military  talents  which  friends  and  foes  agreed  in  pro 
nouncing  extraordinary. 

His  old  comrade  and  friend,  a  near  neighbor  for  half 
a  lifetime,  the  late  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  a  gentleman 
competent  to  judge  in  such  matters,  used  to  say,  as  he 
talked  of  the  Creek  and  New  Orleans  campaigns,  that 
Andrew  Jackson,  in  point  of  native  military  capacity, 
was  the  peer  of  the  great  generals  of  the  world — Caesar, 
Cromwell,  Frederick,  Bonaparte,  or  Wellington — and  in 
support  of  this  opinion  he  would  adduce  many  curious 
facts  and  traits  that  could  be  known  only  to  an  intimate 
and  confidential  companion. 

This  was  the  judgment  of  a  friend,  though  a  friend 
not  blind  to  the  limitations  of  his  old  commander.  I 
have  before  me  the  testimony  of  an  enemy,  one  who  had 
personally  felt  the  force  of  the  stroke  which  General 
Jackson's  puissant  arm  could  deal.  As  late  as  1888 

M25742 


vi  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

there  were  two  survivors  of  the  British  army  that  in 
vaded  Louisiana  in  1814  and  took  part  in  the  action 
of  January  8,  1815.  One  of  these  was  the  late  Earl 
of  Albemarle  ;  the  other,  Rev.  George  R.  Gleig,  who 
was  for  many  years  chaplain -general  to  the  British 
forces,  but  served  as  a  lieutenant  of  foot  in  the  expe 
dition  against  New  Orleans.  Mr.  Gleig  was  the  "  sub 
altern  "  whose  excellent  narrative  of  the  expedition 
is  occasionally  quoted  in  this  volume.  A  short  time 
before  his  death  he  wrote  thus  to  his  American  friend, 
General  James  Grant  Wilson,  the  editor  of  this  series 
of  volumes : 

"  When  I  look  back  upon  the  means  which  General 
Jackson  adopted  to  cover  New  Orleans,  and  remember 
the  materials  of  which  his  army  was  composed,  I  can  not 
but  regard  his  management  of  that  campaign  as  one  of 
the  most  masterly  of  which  history  makes  mention.  His 
night  attack  on  our  advanced  guard  was  as  bold  a  stroke 
as  ever  was  struck.  It  really  paralyzed  all  our  future 
operations;  for,  though  unsuccessful,  it  taught  us  to  hold 
our  enemy  in  respect,  and  in  all  future  movements  to  act 
with  an  excess  of  caution.  The  use,  also,  which  he  made 
of  the  river  was  admirable.  Indeed,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  to  him  the  generals  who  came  after  him  were 
indebted  for  the  perception  of  the  great  advantages  to 
which  the  command  of  rivers  may  be  turned.  And  do 
not  let  us  forget  that  he  had  little  else  to  oppose  to 
Wellington's  veterans,  fresh  from  their  triumphs  in  Spain 
and  the  south  of  France,  except  raw  levies.  Altogether 
I  think  of  Jackson  as,  next  to  Washington,  the  greatest 
general  America  has  produced." 

To  the  last  of  his  days — and  he  lived  to  be  past 
ninety-one — he  retained  these  impressions  unimpaired. 
General  Wilson,  in  conversation,  would  call  the  old 
gentleman's  attention  to  the  brilliant  achievements  of 


PREFACE.  yii 

Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  and  others,  but  could  never 
convince  him  that  either  of  them  showed  military  ca 
pacity  superior  to  that  of  the  general  who  had  given  him 
and  his  comrades  such  a  world  of  trouble  seventy  years 
before. 

"  No,"  he  would  say,  "  Jackson  did  everything  that 
could  be  done  to  repel  an  attack  that  ought  to  have 
proved  successful.  His  beating  up  our  bivouac  on  the 
night  of  our  landing  was  a  master  stroke,  and,  had  his 
troops  been  such  as  yours  became  during  your  civil  war, 
he  would  have  destroyed  us."  This  is  the  judgment  of 
a  soldier  who  saw  and  felt  during  some  terrible  weeks 
what  it  is  in  war  to  have  a  real  general  in  command  on 
the  other  side. 

No  one  can  carefully  examine  the  record  without  dis 
covering  that  Andrew  Jackson  possessed  the  indispen 
sable  qualities  of  a  commanding  general :  in  all  circum 
stances  imperturbably  brave ;  confident  in  himself,  but 
open  to  suggestion  and  to  argument ;  bold  when  boldness 
was  wise,  but  as  wary  as  an  Indian  until  he  saw  his  way 
to  victory  clear ;  vigilant,  prompt,  persistent,  indefati 
gable,  and  aware  of  the  importance  of  little  things.  He 
had  for  his  soldiers  the  paternal  feeling  which  we  ob 
serve  in  all  the  great  generals,  as  we  do  also  in  the  great 
captains  of  industry  ;  yet  he  could  be  a  stern  and  ruth 
less  disciplinarian.  There  is  a  passage  in  his  farewell 
address  to  the  army  in  1821  where  he  speaks  of  the 
bounty-jumpers  of  his  day,  who  found  it  "  a  source  of 
speculation  to  go  from  rendezvous  to  rendezvous,  enlist 
ing,  receiving  the  bounty,  and  deserting,  all  the  way 
from  Boston  to  New  Orleans."  The  passage,  if  it  had 
been  acted  upon  during  the  late  war,  would  have  saved 
a  vast  amount  of  suffering  and  waste. 

Two  of  his  favorite  maxims  denote  the  soldier :  "  In 
war,  till  everything  is  done,  nothing  is  done";  and  this 


viii  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

also,  "When  you  have  a  thing  to  do,  take  all  the  time 
for  thinking  that  the  circumstances  allow,  but  when  the 
time  has  come  for  action,  stop  thinking." 

[THE  last  literary  work  of  James  Parton  was  the 
preparation  of  this  brief  biography  of  General  Jackson. 
It  was  completed  in  August,  1891.  Two  months  later, 
a  long  career  of  literary  industry  was  closed  by  his 
death  at  the  ripe  age  of  seventy.  An  indefatigable 
worker,  he  produced  many  valuable  American  biog 
raphies,  of  which  his  earliest — a  Life  of  Horace  Greeley 
— was  perhaps  the  most  popular.  Although  less  am 
bitious  in  scope  than  some  of  Mr.  Parton's  previous 
volumes,  his  last  work,  like  his  first,  presents  a  fair  esti 
mate  of  its  subject,  and  seems  free  from  the  natural 
tendency  of  biographers,  which  Macaulay  sneeringly 
designates  "the  disease  of  admiration."  Altogether 
the  book  appears  to  be  a  model  miniature  biography, 
possessing  throughout  all  the  interest  of  a  romance. 
It  would  seem  that  this  story  of  the  career  of  the  great 
American  commander  can  not  fail  to  add  to  Mr.  Parton's 
literary  reputation.  EDITOR.] 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PACE 

I. — PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION I 

II. — DURING  THE  REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 7 

III. — HE    STUDIES    LAW,    AND     BECOMES    A    TENNESSEE 

LAWYER .17 

IV. — IN  PUBLIC  LIFE,  AND  AS  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS   .        .    25 
V. — DUEL  WITH  CHARLES  DICKINSON        .        .        .        .33 

VI. —AT  HOME 43 

VII. — IN  THE  FIELD 49 

VIII. — THE  MASSACRE  AT  FORT  MIMS 64 

IX. — THE  CREEK  COUNTRY  INVADED 74 

X. — THE  FINISHING  BLOW 108 

XI. — MOBILE  DEFENDED,  AND  THE  ENGLISH  DRIVEN  FROM 

PENSACOLA 124 

XII. — JACKSON  AT  NEW  ORLEANS,  AND  APPROACH  OF  THE 

BRITISH 144 

XIII. — NIGHT  BATTLE  OF  DECEMBER  230      .        .        .        .164 

XIV. — SHOVELS  AND  WHEELBARROWS 176 

XV. — SECOND  ADVANCE  OF  THE  ENGLISH     ....  192 

XVI.— THE  STH  OF  JANUARY 208 

XVII. — END  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN 231 

XVIII. — COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT  .        .  249 
XIX. — A  CANDIDATE  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY  ....  273 

XX. — INAUGURATION 281 

XXI. — TERROR  AMONG  THE  OFFICE-HOLDERS       .        .        .  287 

XXII.— THE  SECOND  TERM 297 

XXIII.— IN  RETIREMENT 3*5 

INDEX     .  327 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FACING 
PAGE 


General  Jackson,  from  a  Portrait  by  Longacre  .         Frontispiece 

The  Battlefield  of  New  Orleans 144 

Colonel  Benton,  from  a  Portrait  by  Fredericks          .         .         .231 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PARENTAGE  AND  EDUCATION. 

IN  1765,  Andrew  Jackson,  the  father  of  the  Andrew 
Jackson  whose  career  we  are  about  to  relate,  emigrated, 
with  his  wife  and  two  sons,  from  Carrickfergus,  in  the 
north  of  Ireland,  to  South  Carolina.  His  sons  were 
named  Hugh  and  Robert;  Andrew  was  not  yet  born. 
In  his  native  country  he  had  cultivated  a  few  hired 
acres,  and  his  wife  had  been  a  weaver  of  linen.  Like 
most  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  north  of  Ireland,  he  was 
of  Scottish  origin ;  but  his  ancestors  had  lived  for  five 
generations  in  the  neighborhood  of  Carrickfergus; 
lowly,  honest  people,  tillers  of  the  soil  and  weavers; 
radical  Whigs  in  politics,  Presbyterians  in  religion.  He 
was  accompanied  to  America  by  three  of  his  neighbors, 
James,  Robert,- and  Joseph  Crawford,  the  first-named  of 
whom  was  his  brother-in-law.  The  peace  between 
France  and  England,  signed  two  years  before,  which 
ended  the  "  old  French  War  " — the  war  in  which  Brad- 
dock  was  defeated  and  Canada  won — had  restored  to 
mankind  their  highway,  the  ocean,  and  given  an  impulse 
to  emigration  from  the  Old  World  to  the  New.  From  the 
north  of  Ireland  large  numbers  sailed  away  to  the  land 
of  promise.  Five  sisters  of  Mrs.  Jackson  had  gone,  or 
were  soon  going.  Samuel  Jackson,  a  brother  of  Andrew, 


2  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

afterward  went,  ,an\d;£Stab;lished  himself  in  Philadelphia, 
wh.ere  he  k>ng  .lived,  a  respectable  citizen.  Mrs.  Suffren, 
a  daughter  of  another  brother,  followed  in  later  years, 
and  settled  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where  she  has  liv 
ing  descendants. 

The  party  of  emigrants  from  Carrickfergus  land 
ed  at  Charleston,  and  proceeded  without  delay  to  the 
Waxhaw  settlement,  a  hundred  and  sixty  miles  to  the 
northwest  of  Charleston,  where  many  of  their  kindred 
and  countrymen  were  already  established.  This  settle 
ment  was,  or  had  been,  the  seat  of  the  Waxhaw  tribe  of 
Indians. 

A  proof  of  the  poverty  of  Andrew  Jackson  is  this  : 
the  Crawfords,  who  came  with  him  from  Ireland,  bought 
lands  near  the  center  of  the  settlement,  on  the  Waxhaw 
Creek  itself — lands  which  still  attest  the  wisdom  of  their 
choice ;  but  Jackson  settled  seven  miles  away,  on  new 
land,  on  the  banks  of  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  another  branch 
of  the  Catawba.  The  place  is  now  known  as  "  Pleasant 
Grove  Camp  Ground,"  and  the  particular  land  once  oc 
cupied  by  the  father  of  General  Jackson  is  still  pointed 
out  by  the  old  people  of  the  neighborhood. 

For  two  years  Andrew  Jackson  and  his  family  toiled 
in  the  Carolina  woods.  He  had  built  his  log-house, 
cleared  some  fields,  and  raised  a  crop.  Then,  the  father 
of  the  family,  his  work  all  incomplete,  sickened  and 
died :  his  two  boys  being  still  very  young,  and  his  wife 
far  advanced  in  pregnancy.  This  was  early  in  the 
spring  of  1767. 

The  bereaved  family  of  the  Jacksons  never  returned 
to  their  home  on  the  banks  of  Twelve  Mile  Creek,  but 
went  from  the  churchyard  to  the  house,  not  far  off,  of 
one  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  brothers-in-law,  George  McKemey 
by  name,  whose  remains  now  repose  in  the  same  old 
burying-ground.  A  few  nights  after  there  was  a  swift 


PARENTAGE  AND   EDUCATION. 


3 


sending  of  messengers  to  the  neighbors,  and  a  hurrying 
across  the  fields  of  friendly  women  ;  and  before  the  sun 
rose  a  son  was  born,  the  son  whose  career  and  fortunes 
we  have  undertaken  to  relate.  It  was  in  a  small  log- 
house,  in  the  province  of  North  Carolina,  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  boundary-line  between  North 
and  South  Carolina,  that  the  birth  took  place.  Andrew 
Jackson,  then,  was  born  in  Union  County,  North  Caro 
lina,  on  the  i5th  of  March,  1767. 

General  Jackson  always  supposed  himself  to  be  a 
native  of  South  Carolina.  "  Fellow-citizens  of  my  native 
State !  "  he  exclaims,  at  the  close  of  his  proclamation  to 
the  nullifiers  of  South  Carolina;  but  it  is  as  certain  as 
any  fact  of  the  kind  can  be  that  he  was  mistaken.  The 
clear  and  uniform  tradition  of  the  neighborhood,  sup 
ported  by  a  great  mass  of  indisputable  testimony,  points 
to  a  spot  in  North  Carolina,  but  only  a  stone's-throw 
from  the  line  that  divides  it  from  South  Carolina,  as  the 
birthplace  of  Andrew  Jackson. 

In  the  family  of  his  Uncle  Crawford,  Andy  Jackson 
(for  by  this  familiar  name  he  is  still  spoken  of  in  the 
neighborhood)  spent  the  first  ten  or  twelve  years  of  his 
life.  Mr.  Crawford  was  a  man  of  considerable  substance 
for  a  new  country,  and  his  family  was  large.  He  lived 
in  South  Carolina,  just  over  the  boundary-line,  near  the 
Waxhaw  Creek,  and  six  miles  from  the  Catawba  River. 
The  land  there  lies  well  for  farming ;  level,  but  not  flat ; 
undulating,  but  without  hills  of  inconvenient  height. 
The  soil  is  a  stiff,  red  clay,  the  stiffest  of  the  stiff  and  the 
reddest  of  the  red ;  the  kind  of  soil  which  bears  hard 
usage,  and  makes  the  very  worst  winter  roads  anywhere 
to  be  found  on  this  planet.  Except  where  there  is  an 
interval  of  fertile  soil,  the  country  round  about  is  a 
boundless  continuity  of  pine  woods,  wherein  to  this  day 
wild  turkeys  and  deer  are  shot,  and  the  farmers  take 


4  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

their  cotton  to  market  in  immense  wagons  of  antique 
pattern,  a  journey  of  half  a  week,  and  camp  out  every 
night.  As  evening  closes  in,  the  passing  traveler  sees 
the  mules,  the  negro  driver,  the  huge  covered  wagon, 
the  farmer,  and  sometimes  his  wife  with  an  infant, 
grouped  in  the  most  strikingly  picturesque  manner,  in 
an  opening  of  the  forest,  around  a  blazing  fire  of  pine 
knots  that  light  up  the  scene  like  an  illumination.  In 
such  a  country  as  this,  with  horses  to  ride,  and  cows  to 
hunt,  and  journeys  to  make,  and  plenty  of  boys,  black 
and  white,  to  play  with,  our  little  friend  spent  his  early 
years. 

In  due  time  the  boy  was  sent  to  an  "  old-field  school," 
an  institution  not  much  unlike  the  roadside  schools  in 
Ireland  of  which  we  read.  The  Northern  reader  is  per 
haps  not  aware  that  an  "  old  field  "  is  not  a  field  at  all, 
but  a  pine  forest.  When  crop  after  crop  of  cotton,  with 
out  rotation,  has  exhausted  the  soil,  the  fences  are 
taken  away,  the  land  lies  waste,  the  young  pines  at 
once  spring  up  and  soon  cover  the  whole  field  with  a 
thick  growth  of  wood.  In  one  of  these  old  fields  the 
rudest  possible  shanty  of  a  log  house  is  erected,  with  a 
fireplace  that  extends  from  side  to  side  and  occupies  a 
third  of  the  interior.  In  winter  the  interstices  of  the 
log  walls  are  filled  up  with  clay,  which  the  restless 
fingers  of  the  boys  make  haste  to  remove  in  time  to  admit 
the  first  warm  airs  of  spring.  An  itinerant  schoolmas 
ter  presents  himself  in  a  neighborhood  ;  the  responsi 
ble  farmers  pledge  him  a  certain  number  of  pupils,  and 
an  old-field  school  is  established  for  the  season.  Read 
ing,  writing,  and  arithmetic  were  all  the  branches  taught 
in  the  early  days. 

But  Mrs.  Jackson  had  more  ambitious  views  for  her 
youngest  son.  She  aimed  to  give  him  a  liberal  education, 
in  the  hope  that  he  would  one  day  become  a  clergyman  in 


PARENTAGE   AND  EDUCATION.  5 

the  Presbyterian  Church.  It  is  probable  that  her  con 
dition  was  not  one  of  absolute  dependence.  The  tradi 
tion  of  the  neighborhood  is,  that  she  was  noted  the  coun 
try  round  for  her  skill  in  spinning  flax,  and  that  she 
earned  money  by  spinning  to  pay  for  Andrew's  schooling. 
It  is  possible,  too,  that  her  relations  in  Ireland  may 
have  contributed  something  to  her  support. 

Andy  was  a  wild,  frolicsome,  willful,  mischievous, 
daring,  reckless  boy ;  generous  to  a  friend,  but  never 
content  to  submit  to  a  stronger  enemy.  He  was  passion 
ately  fond  of  those  sports  which  are  mimic  battles ; 
above  all,  wrestling. 

If  our  knowledge  of  the  school-life  of  Jackson  is 
scanty,  we  are  at  no  loss  to  say  what  he  learned  and 
what  he  failed  to  learn  at  school.  He  learned  to  read, 
to  write,  to  cast  accounts — little  more.  If  he  began,  as 
he  may  have  done,  to  learn  by  heart,  in  the  old-fashioned 
way,  the  Latin  grammar,  he  never  acquired  enough  of 
it  to  leave  any  traces  of  classical  knowledge  in  his  mind 
or  his  writings.  In  some  of  his  later  letters  there 
may  be  found,  it  is  true,  an  occasional  Latin  phrase  of 
two  or  three  words,  but  so  quoted  as  to  show  igno 
rance  rather  than  knowledge.  He  was  never  a  well-in 
formed  man.  He  never  was  addicted  to  books.  He 
never  learned  to  write  the  English  language  correctly, 
though  he  often  wrote  it  eloquently  and  convincingly. 
He  never  learned  to  spell  correctly,  though  he  was  a 
better  speller  than  Frederick  II,  Marlborough,  Napoleon, 
or  Washington.  Few  men  of  his  day,  and  no  women, 
were  correct  spellers. 

He  was  nine  years  old  when  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  was  signed.  By  the  time  the  war  approached 
the  Waxhaw  settlement,  bringing  blood  and  terror  with 
it,  leaving  desolation  behind  it,  closing  all  schoolhouses, 
and  putting  a  stop  to  the  peaceful  labors  of  the  people, 


6  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Andrew  Jackson  was  little  more  than  thirteen.  His 
brother  Hugh,  a  man  in  stature  if  not  in  years,  had  not 
waited  for  the  war  to  come  near  his  home,  but  had 
mounted  his  horse  a  year  before  and  ridden  southward 
to  meet  it.  He  was  one  of  the  troopers  of  that  famous 
regiment  to  raise  and  equip  which,  its  colonel,  William 
Richardson  Davie,  spent  the  last  guinea  of  his  inherited 
estate.  Under  Colonel  Davie,  Hugh  Jackson  fought  in 
the  ranks  of  the  battle  of  Stono,  and  died,  after  the  ac 
tion,  of  heat  and  fatigue.  His  brother  Robert  was  a 
strapping  lad,  but  too  young  for  a  soldier,  and  was  still 
at  home  with  his  mother  and  Andrew  when  Tarleton 
and  his  dragoons  thundered  along  the  red  roads  of  the 
VVaxhaws,  and  dyed  them  a  deeper  red  with  the  blood 
of  the  surprised  militia. 


CHAPTER  II. 

DURING    THE    REVOLUTIONARY    WAR. 

IT  was  on  the  29th  of  May,  1780,  that  Tarleton,  with 
three  hundred  horsemen,  surprised  a  detachment  of 
militia  in  the  Waxhaw  settlement  and  killed  one  hun 
dred  and  thirteen  of  them,  and  wounded  a  hundred  and 
fifty.  The  wounded,  abandoned  to  the  care  of  the  set 
tlers,  were  quartered  in  the  houses  of  the  vicinity;  the 
old  log  Waxhaw  meeting-house  itself  being  converted 
into  a  hospital  for  the  most  desperate  cases.  Mrs. 
Jackson  was  one  of  the  kind  women  who  ministered  to 
the  wounded  soldiers  in  the  church,  and  under  that  roof 
her  boys  first  saw  what  war  was.  The  men  were  dread 
fully  mangled.  Some  had  received  as  many  as  thirteen 
wounds,  and  none  less  than  three.  For  many  days  An 
drew  and  his  brother  assisted  their  mother  in  waiting 
upon  the  sick  men;  Andrew,  more  in  rage  than  pity, 
burning  to  avenge  their  wounds  and  his  brother's  death. 

Tarleton's  massacre  at  the  Waxhaws  kindled  the 
flames  of  war  in  all  that  region  of  the  Carolinas.  Many 
notable  actions  were  fought,  and  some  striking  though 
unimportant  advantages  were  gained  by  the  patriot 
forces.  Andrew  Jackson  and  his  brother  Robert  were 
present  at  Sumter's  gallant  attack  upon  the  British 
post  of  Hanging  Rock,  near  Waxhaw,  where  the  patriots 
half  gained  the  day,  and  lost  it  by  beginning  too  soon 
to  drink  the  rum  they  captured  from  the  enemy.  The 
Jackson  boys  rode  on  this  expedition  with  Colonel 


3  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Davie,  a  most  brave,  self-sacrificing  officer,  who,  as  we 
have  said,  commanded  the  troop  of  which  Hugh  Jackson 
was  a  member  when  he  died,  after  the  battle  of  Stono. 
Neither  of  the  boys  was  attached  to  Davie's  company, 
nor  is  it  likely  that  Andrew,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  did  more 
than  witness  the  affair  at  Hanging  Rock. 

This  Colonel  Davie,  Hugh  Jackson's  old  commander, 
was  the  man,  above  all  others  who  led  Carolina  troops 
in  the  Revolution,  that  the  Jackson  boys  admired.  He 
was  a  man  after  Andrew's  own  heart — swift  but  wary, 
bold  in  planning  enterprises  but  most  cautious  in  exe 
cution,  sleeplessly  vigilant,  untiringly  active — one  of 
those  cool,  quick  men  who  apply  mother-wit  to  the  art 
of  war ;  who  are  good  soldiers  because  they  are  earnest 
and  clear-sighted  men.  So  far  as  any  man  was  General 
Jackson's  model  soldier,  William  Richardson  Davie,  of 
North  Carolina,  was  the  individual. 

The  boys  rejoined  their  mother  at  the  Waxhaw 
settlement.  On  the  i6th  of  August,  1780,  occurred  the 
great  disaster  of  the  war  in  the  South,  the  defeat  of 
General  Gates.  The  victor,  Cornwallis,  moved  three 
weeks  after,  with  his  whole  army,  toward  the  Waxhaws; 
which  induced  Mrs.  Jackson  and  her  boys  once  more 
to  abandon  their  home  for  a  safer  retreat  north  of  the 
scene  of  war. 

In  February,  1781,  the  country  about  the  Waxhaws 
again  being  tranquil,  because  subdued,  Mrs.  Jackson, 
her  sons,  and  many  of  her  neighbors  returned  to  their 
ravaged  homes.  Andrew  soon  after  passed  his  four 
teenth  birthday,  an  overgrown  youth,  as  tall  as  a  man, 
but  weakly  from  having  grown  too  fast.  Then  ensued 
a  spring  and  summer  of  small,  fierce,  intestine  warfare — 
a  war  of  Whig  and  Tory,  neighbor  against  neighbor, 
brother  against  brother,  and  even  father  against  son. 
Without  detaining  the  reader,  with  a  detail  of  the 


DURING  THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR.  g 

Revolutionary  history  of  the  Carolinas,  I  yet  desire  to 
show  what  a  war-charged  atmosphere  it  was  that  young 
Andrew  breathed  during  this  forming  period  of  his  life, 
especially  toward  the  close  of  the  war,  after  the  great 
operations  ceased. 

The  people  in  the  upper  country  of  the  Carolinas 
little  expected  that  the  war  would  ever  reach  settlements 
so  remote,  so  obscure,  so  scattered  as  theirs;  and  it 
did  not  for  some  years.  When  at  last  the  storm  of  war 
drew  near  their  borders,  it  found  them  a  divided  people. 
The  old  sentiment  of  loyalty  was  still  rooted  in  many 
minds.  There  were  many  who  had  taken  a  recent  and 
special  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  which  they  con 
sidered  binding  in  all  circumstances.  They  were  High 
landers,  clannish  and  religiously  loyal,  who  pointed  to 
the  text,  "  Fear  God  and  honor  the  king,"  and  over 
looked  the  fact  that  the  biblical  narrative  condemns  the 
Jews  for  desiring  a  kingly  government.  There  were 
Moravians  and  Quakers,  who  conscientiously  opposed 
all  war.  There  were  Catholic  Irish,  many  of  whom 
sided  with  the  king.  There  were  Protestant  Scotch- 
Irish,  Whigs  and  agitators  in  the  old  country,  Whigs  and 
fervent  patriots  in  the  new.  There  were  placeholders, 
who  adhered  to  their  official  bread  and  dignity.  There 
were  trimmers,  who  espoused  the  side  that  chanced  to 
be  strongest.  The  approach  and  collision  of  hostile 
forces  converted  most  of  these  factions  into  belligerents, 
who  waged  a  most  fierce  and  deadly  war  upon  one  an 
other,  renewing  on  this  new  theatre  the  border  wars  of 
another  age  and  country. 

The  time  came  when  Andrew  and  his  brother  began 
to  play  men's  parts  in  the  drama.  Without  enlisting  in 
any  organized  corps,  they  joined  small  parties  that  went 
out  on  single  enterprises  of  retaliation,  mounted  on  their 
own  horses  and  carrying  their  own  weapons. 


I0  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

The  activity  and  zeal  of  the  Waxhaw  Whigs  coming 
to  the  ears  of  Lord  Rawdon,  whom  Cornwallis  had  left 
in  command,  he  dispatched  a  small  body  of  dragoons  to 
aid  the  Tories  of  that  infected  neighborhood.  The  Wax- 
haw  people,  hearing  of  the  approach  of  this  hostile  force, 
resolved  upon  resisting  it  in  open  fight,  and  named  the 
Waxhaw  meeting-house  as  the  rendezvous.  Forty  Whigs 
assembled  on  the  appointed  day,  mounted  and  armed, 
and  among  them  were  Rober^and  Andrew  Jackson.  In 
the  grove  about  the  old  church  these  forty  were  waiting 
for  the  arrival — hourly  expected — of  another  company 
of  Whigs  from  a  neighboring  settlement.  The  British 
officer  in  command  of  the  dragoons,  apprised  of  the  ren 
dezvous  by  a  Tory  of  the  neighborhood,  determined  to 
surprise  the  patriot  party  before  the  two  companies  had 
united.  Before  coming  in  sight  of  the  church,  he  placed 
a  body  of  Tories  wearing  the  dress  of  the  country  far 
in  advance  of  his  soldiers,  and  so  marched  upon  the  de 
voted  band.  The  Waxhaw  party  saw  a  company  of 
armed  men  approaching,  but,  concluding  them  to  be 
their  expected  friends,  made  no  preparations  for  defense. 
Too  late  the  error  was  discovered.  Eleven  of  the  forty 
were  taken  prisoners,  and  the  rest  sought  safety  in  flight, 
fiercely  pursued  by  the  dragoons.  The  brothers  were 
separated.  Andrew  found  himself  galloping  for  life  and 
liberty  by  the  side  of  his  cousin,  Lieutenant  Thomas 
Crawford,  a  dragoon  close  behind  them,  and  others 
coming  rapidly  on.  They  tore  along  the  road  awhile, 
and  then  took  to  a  swampy  field,  where  they  came  soon 
to  a  wide  slough  of  water  and  mire,  into  which  they 
plunged  their  horses.  Andrew  floundered  across,  and  on 
reaching  dry  land  again  looked  round  for  his  compan 
ion,  whose  horse  had  sunk  into  the  mire  and  fallen.  He 
saw  him  entangled,  and  trying  vainly  to  ward  off  the 
blows  of  his  pursuers  with  his  sword.  Before  Andrew 


DURING   THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR.  Ir 

could  turn  to  assist  him  the  lieutenant  received  a  severe 
wound  in  the  head,  which  compelled  him  to  give  up  the 
contest  and  surrender.  The  youth  put  spurs  to  his 
horse  and  succeeded  in  eluding  pursuit.  Robert,  too, 
escaped  unhurt,  and  in  the  course  of  the  day  the  brothers 
were  reunited,  and  took  refuge  in  a  thicket,  in  which 
they  passed  a  hungry  and  anxious  night. 

The  next  morning  the  pangs  of  hunger  compelled 
them  to  leave  their  safe  retreat  and  go  in  quest  of  food. 
The  nearest  house  was  that  of  Lieutenant  Crawford. 
Leaving  their  horses  and  arms  in  the  thicket,  the  lads 
crept  toward  the  house,  which  they  reached  in  safety. 
Meanwhile,  a  Tory  traitor  of  the  neighborhood  had 
scented  out  their  lurking-place,  found  their  horses  and 
weapons,  and  set  a  party  of  dragoons  upon  their  track. 
Before  the  family  had  a  suspicion  of  danger,  the  house 
was  surrounded,  the  doors  were  secured,  and  the  boys 
were  prisoners. 

A  scene  ensued  which  left  an  impression  upon  the 
mind  of  one  of  the  boys  which  time  never  effaced.  Re 
gardless  of  the  fact  that  the  house  was  occupied  by  the 
defenseless  wife  and  young  children  of  a  wounded  sol 
dier,  the  dragoons,  brutalized  by  this  mean  partisan 
warfare,  began  to  destroy,  with  wild  riot  and  noise,  the 
contents  of  the  house.  Crockery,  glass,  and  furniture 
were  dashed  to  pieces,  beds  emptied,  the  clothing  of 
the  family  torn  to  rags ;  even  the  clothes  of  the  infant 
that  Mrs.  Crawford  carried  in  her  arms  were  not  spared. 
While  this  destruction  was  going  on,  the  officer  in  com 
mand  of  the  party  ordered  Andrew  to  clean  his  high 
jack-boots,  which  were  well  splashed  and  crusted  with 
mud.  The  boy  replied,  not  angrily,  though  with  a  cer 
tain  firmness  and  decision,  in  something  like  these  words  : 

"  Sir,  I  am  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  claim  to  be  treated 
as  such." 


12 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 


The  officer  aimed  a  desperate  blow  at  the  boy's  head 
with  his  sword.  Andrew  broke  the  force  of  the  blow 
with  his  left  hand,  and  thus  received  two  wounds — one 
deep  gash  on  his  head  and  another  on  his  hand,  the 
marks  of  both  of  which  he  carried  to  his  grave.  The 
officer,  after  achieving  this  gallant  feat,  turned  to  Rob 
ert  Jackson  and  ordered  him  to  clean  the  boots.  Robert 
also  refused.  The  valiant  Briton  struck  the  young  man 
so  violent  a  sword-blow  upon  the  head,  as  to  prostrate 
and  disable  him. 

Andrew  was  ordered  to  mount,  and  to  guide  some  of 
the  party  to  the  house  of  a  noted  Whig  of  the  vicinity 
named  Thompson.  Threatened  with  instant  death  if  he 
failed  to  guide  them  aright,  the  youth  submitted,  and 
led  the  party  in  the  right  direction.  A  timely  thought 
enabled  him  to  be  the  deliverer  of  his  neighbor  instead 
of  his  captor.  Instead  of  approaching  the  house  by  the 
usual  road,  he  conducted  the  party  by  a  circuitous  route, 
which  brought  them  in  sight  of  the  house  half  a  mile 
before  they  reached  it.  Andrew  well  knew  that,  if 
Thompson  was  at  home,  he  would  be  sure  to  have  some 
one  on  the  lookout,  and  a  horse  ready  for  the  road.  On 
coming  in  sight  of  the  house  he  saw  Thompson's  horse, 
saddled  and  bridled,  standing  at  a  rack  in  the  yard, 
which  informed  him  both  that  the  master  was  there  and 
that  he  was  prepared  for  flight.  The  dragoons  dashed 
forward  to  seize  their  prey.  While  they  were  still  some 
hundreds  of  yards  from  the  house,  Andrew  had  the  de 
light  of  seeing  Thompson  burst  from  his  door,  run  to  his 
horse,  mount,  and  plunge  into  a  foaming,  swollen  creek 
that  rushed  by  his  house.  He  gained  the  opposite  shore, 
and,  seeing  that  the  dragoons  dared  not  attempt  the 
stream,  gave  a  shout  of  defiance  and  galloped  into  the 
woods. 

The  elation  caused  by  the  success  of  his  stratagem 


DURING  THE   REVOLUTIONARY  WAR.  j^ 

was  soon  swallowed  up  in  misery.  Andrew  and  Robert 
Jackson,  Lieutenant  Thomas  Crawford,  and  twenty  other 
prisoners,  all  the  victims  of  this  raid  of  the  dragoons 
into  the  Waxhaws,  were  placed  on  horses  stolen  in  the 
same  settlement  and  marched  toward  Camden,  South 
Carolina,  a  great  British  depot  at  the  time,  forty  miles 
distant.  It  was  a  long  and  agonizing  journey,  especially 
to  the  wounded,  among  whom  were  the  Jacksons  and 
their  cousin.  Not  an  atom  of  food  nor  a  drop  of  water 
was  allowed  them  on  the  way.  Such  was  the  brutality  of 
the  soldiers,  that  when  these  miserable  lads  tried  to  scoop 
up  a  little  water  from  the  streams  which  they  forded,  to 
appease  their  raging  thirst,  they  were  ordered  to  desist. 

At  Camden  their  situation  was  one  of  utter  wretch 
edness.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners  in  a  contracted 
inclosure  drawn  around  the  jail ;  no  beds  of  any  descrip 
tion  ;  no  medicine  ;  no  medical  attendance,  nor  means  of 
dressing  the  wounds ;  their  only  food  a  scanty  supply 
of  bad  bread.  They  were  robbed  even  of  part  of  their 
clothing,  besides  being  subject  to  the  taunts  and  threats 
of  every  passing  Tory.  The  three  relatives,  it  is  said, 
were  separated  as  soon  as  their  relationship  was  discov 
ered.  Miserable  among  the  miserable ;  gaunt,  yellow, 
hungry,  and  sick ;  robbed  of  his  jacket  and  shoes ;  ig 
norant  of  his  brother's  fate;  chafing  with  suppressed 
fury,  Andrew  passed  now  some  of  the  most  wretched 
days  of  his  life.  Ere  long  the  smallpox — a  disease  un 
speakably  terrible  at  that  day,  more  terrible  than  chol 
era  or  plague  has  ever  been — broke  out  among  the 
prisoners,  and  raged  unchecked  by  medicine  and  unal- 
leviated  by  any  kind  of  attendance  or  nursing.  The  sick 
and  the  well,  the  dying  and  the  dead,  those  shuddering 
at  the  first  symptoms  and  those  putrid  with  the  disease, 
were  mingled  together;  and  all  but  the  dead  were 
equally  miserable. 


I4  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

For  some  time  Andrew  escaped  the  contagion.  He 
was  reclining  one  day  in  the  sun,  near  the  entrance  of 
the  prison,  when  the  officer  of  the  guard,  attracted,  as  it 
seemed,  by  the  youthfulness  of  his  appearance,  entered 
into  conversation  with  him.  The  lad  soon  began  to 
speak  of  that  of  which  his  heart  was  full — the  condition 
of  the  prisoners  and  the  bad  quality  of  their  food.  He 
remonstrated  against  their  treatment  with  such  energy 
and  feeling  that  the  officer  seemed  to  be  moved  and 
shocked,  and,  what  was  far  more  important,  he  was  in 
duced  to  ferret  out  the  villainy  of  the  contractors  who 
had  been  robbing  the  prisoners  of  their  rations.  From 
the  day  of  Andrew's  remonstrance  the  condition  of  the 
prisoners  was  ameliorated ;  they  were  supplied  with 
meat  and  better  bread,  and  were  otherwise  better  cared 
for. 

Andrew's  spirits  sank  under  this  accumulation  of 
miseries,  and  he  began  to  sicken  with  the  first  symptoms 
of  the  smallpox.  Robert  was  in  a  condition  still  worse. 
The  wound  in  his  head  had  never  been  dressed,  and  had 
not  healed.  He,  too,  reduced  as  he  was,  began  to  shiver 
and  burn  with  the  fever  that  announces  the  dread  dis 
ease.  Another  week  of  prison  life  would  have  probably 
consigned  both  these  boys  to  the  grave.  But  they  had 
a  friend  outside  the  prison — their  mother,  who  at  this 
crisis  of  their  fate  strove  with  the  might  of  love  for 
their  deliverance.  Learning  their  forlorn  condition,  this 
heroic  woman  went  to  Camden,  and  succeeded,  after  a 
time,  in  effecting  an  exchange  of  prisoners  between  a 
Waxhaw  captain  and  the  British  general.  The  Whig  cap 
tain  gave  up  thirteen  soldiers  whom  he  had  captured  in 
the  rear  of  the  British  army,  and  received  in  return  the 
two  sons  of  Mrs.  Jackson  and  five  of  her  neighbors.  When 
the  little  family  were  reunited  in  the  town  of  Camden, 
the  mother  could  but  gaze  upon  her  boys  with  astonish- 


DURING   THE   REVOLUTIONARY   WAR.  I5 

ment  and  horror — so  worn  and  wasted  were  they  with 
hunger,  wounds,  and  disease.  Robert  could  not  stand, 
or  even  sit  on  horseback,  without  support. 

The  mother,  however,  had  no  choice  but  to  get  them 
home  immediately.  Two  horses  were  procured.  One 
she  rode  herself.  Robert  was  placed  upon  the  other, 
and  held  in  his  seat  by  the  returning  prisoners  to  whom 
Mrs.  Jackson  had  just  given  liberty.  Behind  the  sad 
procession  poor  Andrew  dragged  his  weak  and  weary 
limbs,  bareheaded,  barefooted,  without  a  jacket,  his 
only  two  garments  torn  and  dirty.  The  forty  miles  of 
lonely  wilderness  that  lay  between  Camden  and  Waxhaw 
were  nearly  traversed,  and  the  fevered  lads  were  expect 
ing  in  two  hours  more  to  enjoy  the  bliss  of  repose,  when 
a  chilly,  drenching,  merciless  rain  set  in.  When  this  oc 
curred,  the  smallpox  had  reached  that  stage  of  develop 
ment  when,  after  having  raged  within  the  system,  it  was 
about  to  break  out  in  those  loathsome  sores  which  give 
vent  to  the  disease.  The  boys  reached  home  and  went 
to  bed.  In  two  days  Robert  Jackson  was  a  corpse  and 
his  brother  Andrew  a  raving  maniac.  A  mother's  nurs 
ing,  medical  skill,  and  a  constitution  sound  at  the  core, 
brought  the  youth  out  of  this  peril,  and  set  him  upon  the 
way  to  slow  recovery.  He  was  an  invalid  for  several 
months. 

In  the  summer  of  1781  a  great  cry  of  anguish  and 
despair  came  up  to  Waxhaw  from  the  Charleston  prison- 
ships,  wherein,  among  many  hundreds  of  other  prisoners, 
were  confined  some  of  the  sons  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  sisters, 
and  other  friends  and  neighbors  of  hers  from  the  Wax- 
haw  country.  Mrs.  Jackson  had  seen  at  Camden  what 
prisoners  of  war  may  suffer.  She  had  also  seen  what  a 
little  vigor  and  tact  can  effect  in  the  deliverance  of  pris 
oners.  Andrew  was  no  sooner  quite  out  of  danger  than 
his  brave  mother  resolved  to  go  to  Charleston  (distant 


j6  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

one  hundred  and  sixty  miles)  and  do  what  she  could  for 
the  comfort  of  the  prisoners  there.  The  tradition  of  the 
neighborhood  now  is  that  she  performed  the  entire  jour 
ney  on  foot,  in  company  with  two  other  women  of  like 
mind  and  purpose.  It  is  more  probable,  however,  and 
so  thought  General  Jackson,  that  these  gallant  women 
rode  on  horseback,  carrying  with  them  a  precious  store 
of  gifts  and  rural  luxuries  and  medicines  for  the  solace 
of  their  imprisoned  relatives,  and  bearing  tender  mes 
sages  and  precious  news  from  home.  Protected  by 
being  unprotected,  they  reached  Charleston  in  safety, 
gained  admission  to  the  ships,  emptied  their  hearts  and 
saddle-bags,  and  brought  such  joy  to  the  haggard  pris 
oners  as  only  prisoners  know  when  women  fr'om  home 
visit  them. 

And  there  the  history  of  this  expedition  ends.  This 
only  is  further  known  of  it,  or  will  ever  be :  While  stop 
ping  at  the  house  of  a  relative,  William  Barton  by  name, 
who  lived  two  miles  and  a  half  from  Charleston,  Mrs. 
Jackson  was  seized  with  the  ship  fever,  and,  after  a 
short  illness,  died,  and  was  buried  on  the  open  plain 
near  by. 

And  so  Andrew,  before  reaching  his  fifteenth  birth 
day,  was  an  orphan ;  a  sick  and  sorrowful  orphan  ;  a 
homeless  and  dependent  orphan. 


CHAPTER   III. 

HE   STUDIES    LAW,   AND    BECOMES    A    TENNESSEE    LAWYER. 

CORNWALLIS  surrendered  at  Yorktown  on  the  igth 
of  October,  1781.  Savannah  remained  in  the  enemy's 
hands  nine  months,  and  Charleston  fourteen  months 
after  that  event ;  but  the  war,  in  effect,  terminated  then, 
North  and  South.  The  Waxhaw  people  who  survived 
returned  to  their  homes,  and  resumed  the  vocations 
which  the  war  had  interrupted. 

With  returning  health  returned  the  frolicsome  spirit 
of  the  youth,  which  now  began  to  seek  gratification  in 
modes  less  innocent  than  the  sportive  feats  of  his  school 
boy  days.  Several  Charleston  families  of  wealth  and 
social  eminence  were  living  in  the  neighborhood,  waiting 
for  the  evacuation  of  their  city.  With  the  young  men 
of  these  families  Jackson  became  acquainted,  and  led  a 
life  with  them,  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1782,  that 
was  more  merry  than  wise.  He  was  betrayed  by  their 
example  and  his  own  pride  into  habits  of  expense,  which 
wasted  his  small  resources.  That  passion  for  horses, 
which  never  left  him,  began  to  show  itself.  He  ran 
races  and  rode  races,  gambled  a  little,  drank  a  little, 
fought  cocks  occasionally,  and  comported  himself  in  the 
style  usually  affected  by  dissipated  young  men  of  that 
day. 

In  December,  1782,  to  the  joy  and  exultation  of  all 
the  Southern  country,  Charleston  was  evacuated,  and 
its  scattered  Whig  families  were  free  to  return  to  their 


!g  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

homes.  Andrew,  finding  the  country  dull  after  the  de 
parture  of  his  gay  companions,  suddenly  resolved  to 
follow  them  to  the  city.  He  mounted  his  horse,  a  fine 
and  valuable  animal  that  he  had  contrived  to  possess, 
and  rode  to  Charleston  through  the  wilderness.  There, 
it  appears,  he  remained  long  enough  to  expend  his  slen 
der  stock  of  money  and  run  up  a  long  bill  with  his 
landlord.  He  was  saved  from  total  ruin  by  a  curious 
incident,  which  is  thus  related  by  one  who  heard  it  from 
himself  :  "  He  had  strolled  one  evening  down  the  street 
and  was  carried  into  a  place  where  some  persons  were 
amusing  themselves  at  a  game  of  dice,  and  much  betting 
was  in  progress.  He  was  challenged  for  a  game  by  a 
person  present,  by  whom  a  proposal  was  made  to  stake 
two  hundred  dollars  against  the  fine  horse  on  which 
Jackson  had  come  to  Charleston.  After  some  delibera 
tion  he  accepted  the  challenge.  Fortune  was  on  his  side ; 
the  wager  was  won  and  paid.  He  forthwith  departed, 
settled  his  bill  next  morning,  and  returned  to  his  home. 
'  My  calculation,'  said  he,  speaking  of  this  incident,  *  was 
that,  if  a  loser  in  the  game,  I  would  give  the  landlord 
my  saddle  and  bridle,  as  far  as  they  would  go  toward 
the  payment  of  his  bill,  ask  a  credit  for  the  balance,  and 
walk  away  from  the  city ;  but  being  successful,  I  had 
new  spirits  infused  into  me,  left  the  table,  and  from  that 
moment  to  the  present  time  I  have  never  thrown  dice 
for  a  wager.' " 

Upon  the  return  of  the  young  man  to  the  home 
of  his  childhood  he  evidently  took  hold  of  life  more 
earnestly  than  he  had  done  before.  He  made  some  at 
tempts,  it  is  said,  to  continue  his  studies.  Three  entirely 
credible  informants  testify  that  Andrew  Jackson  was  a 
schoolmaster  at  this  period  of  his  life.  Nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  part  of  the  small  cash  capital  upon 
which  he  started  in  his  career  was  earned  amid  the  hum 


HE   STUDIES   LAW.  !9 

and  bustle  of  an  old-field  school.  It  is  the  more  certain, 
as  the  uniform  tradition  of  the  Waxhaw  country  is  that 
he  was  a  very  poor  young  man,  who  inherited  nothing 
from  his  father,  because  his  father  had  nothing  to  leave. 
The  tradition  at  Charlotte  is,  that  when  young  Andrew 
attended  Queen's  College  he  often  passed  down  the 
street  to  school  with  his  trousers  too  ragged  to  keep 
his  shirt  from  flying  in  the  wind. 

For  a  year  certainly,  and  probably  for  two  years, 
after  Andrew's  return  from  Charleston  he  remained  in  the 
Waxhaw  country,  employed  either  in  teaching  school  or 
in  some  less  worthy  occupation.  Peace  was  formally 
proclaimed  in  April,  1783.  Some  time  between  the 
proclamation  of  peace  and  the  winter  of  i784-'85,  Andrew 
Jackson  resolved  upon  studying  law.  In  that  winter  he 
gathered  together  his  earnings  and  whatever  property 
he  may  have  possessed,  mounted  his  horse  again,  and 
set  his  face  northward  in  quest  of  a  master  in  the  law 
under  whom  to  pursue  his  studies.  He  rode  to  Salis 
bury,  North  Carolina,  a  distance  of  seventy-five  miles 
from  the  Waxhaws. 

At  Salisbury  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Mr.  Spruce 
McCay,  an  eminent  lawyer  at  that  time,  and  in  later 
days  a  judge  of  high  distinction,  who  is  still  remembered 
with  honor  in  North  Carolina. 

In  one  of  the  back  streets  of  this  old  town,  on  the 
lawn  in  front  of  one  of  its  largest  and  handsomest  man 
sions,  close  to  the  street  and  to  the  left  of  the  gate, 
stood,  in  1858,  a  little  box  of  a  house  fifteen  feet  by  six 
teen,  and  one  story  high.  It  was  built  of  shingles, 
several  of  which  had  decayed  and  fallen  off.  This  little 
decaying  house  of  shingles  was  the  law  office  of  Spruce 
McCay  when  Andrew  Jackson  studied  law  under  him 
at  Salisbury,  in  1785  and  1786.  The  mansion  behind  it 
stands  on  the  site  of  the  house  in  which  Mr.  McCay 


2Q  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

lived  at  the  time,  and  the  property  is  still  owned  and 
occupied  by  a  near  connection  of  his,  who  has  preserved 
the  old  office  from  regard  to  his  memory. 

Our  student  completed  his  preparation  for  the  bar  in 
the  office  of  Colonel  John  Stokes,  a  brave  soldier  of  the 
Revolution,  and  afterward  a  lawyer  of  high  repute,  from 
whom  Stokes  County,  North  Carolina,  took  its  name. 
Colonel  Stokes  was  one  of  those  who  fell  covered  with 
wounds  at  the  Waxhaw  massacre  in  1780,  and  may 
have  been  nursed  in  the  old  meeting-house  by  Mrs. 
Jackson  and  her  sons.  Before  the  spring  of  1787,  about 
two  years  after  beginning  the  study  of  the  law,  Andrew 
Jackson  was  licensed  to  practice  in  the  courts  of  North 
Carolina.  He  was  twenty  years  of  age  when  he  com 
pleted  the  preliminary  part  of  his  education  at  Salis 
bury.  He  had  grown  to  be  a  tall  fellow.  He  stood 
six  feet  and  an  inch  in  his  stockings.  He  was  remark 
ably  slender  for  that  robust  age  of  the  world,  but  he 
was  also  remarkably  erect,  so  that  his  form  had  the 
effect  of  symmetry  without  being  symmetrical.  His 
movements  and  carriage  were  graceful  and  dignified. 
In  the  accomplishments  of  his  day  and  sphere  he  ex 
celled  the  young  men  of  his  own  circle,  and  was  re 
garded  by  them  as  their  chief  and  model.  He  was  an 
exquisite  horseman,  as  all  will  agree  who  ever  saw  him 
on  horseback.  Jefferson  tells  us  that  General  Washing 
ton  was  the  best  horseman  of  his  time,  but  he  could 
scarcely  have  been  a  more  graceful  or  a  more  daring 
rider  than  Jackson.  From  early  boyhood  to  extreme 
old  age  he  was  the  master  and  friend  of  horses. 

He  was  far  from  handsome.  His  face  was  long,  thin, 
and  fair ;  his  forehead  high  and  somewhat  narrow ;  his 
hair,  reddish-sandy  in  color,  was  exceedingly  abundant, 
and  fell  down  low  over  his  forehead.  The  bristling  hair 
of  the  ordinary  portraits  belongs  to  the  latter  half  of  his 


HE   STUDIES   LAW.  21 

life.  There  was  but  one  feature  of  his  face  that  was  not 
commonplace — his  eyes,  which  were  of  a  deep  blue,  and 
capable  of  blazing  with  great  expression  when  he  was 
roused. 

The  truth  is,  this  young  man  was  one  of  those  who 
convey  to  strangers  the  impression  that  they  are  "some 
body";  who  naturally,  and  without  thinking  of  it,  take 
the  lead ;  who  are  invited  or  permitted  to  take  it  as  a 
matter  of  course. 

Finding  no  opportunity  to  practice  his  profession 
in  the  old  settlements,  young  Jackson  resolved  to  join 
a  large  party  of  emigrants  bound  for  that  part  of  the 
Western  country  which  is  now  the  State  of  Tennessee, 
but  which  was  then  Washington  County,  North  Caro 
lina.  John  McNairy,  a  friend  of  Jackson's,  had  been 
appointed  judge  of  the  Superior  Court  for  that  vast 
region,  and  Jackson  was  invested  with  the  office  of 
solicitor,  or  public  prosecutor,  for  the  same  district. 
This  office  was  not  in  request,  nor  desirable.  It  was, 
in  fact,  difficult  to  get  a  suitable  person  to  accept  an 
appointment  of  the  kind,  which  was  to  be  exercised  in 
a  wilderness  five  hundred  miles  distant  from  the  pop 
ulous  parts  of  North  Carolina,  and  where  the  office  of 
prosecutor  was  sure  to  be  unpopular,  difficult,  and  dan 
gerous.  Thomas  Searcy,  another  of  Jackson's  friends, 
received  the  appointment  of  clerk  of  the  court.  Three 
or  four  more  of  his  young  acquaintances,  lawyers  and 
Others,  resolved  to  go  with  him  and  seek  their  fortune 
in  the  new  and  vaunted  country  of  the  West.  The  party 
rendezvoused  at  Morganton  in  the  spring  or  early  sum 
mer  of  1788,  mounted  and  equipped  for  a  ride  over  the 
mountains  to  Jonesboro,  then  the  chief  settlement  of 
East  Tennessee,  and  the  first  halting-place  of  companies 
bound  to  the  lands  on  the  Cumberland  River. 

The  judge  and  his  party  remained  several  weeks  at 
3 


22  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Jonesboro,  waiting  for  the  assembling  of  a  sufficient 
number  of  emigrants,  and  for  the  arrival  of  a  guard 
from  Nashville  to  escort  them.  Nashville  is  one  hundred 
and  eighty-three  miles  from  Jonesboro.  The  road  ran 
through  a  gap  in  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  and  thence 
entered  a  wilderness  more  dangerously  infested  with 
hostile  Indians  than  any  other  portion  of  the  Western 
country,  not  even  excepting  the  dark  and  bloody  land 
of  Kentucky. 

Before  the  end  of  October,  1788,  the  long  train  of  emi 
grants,  among  whom  was  Mr.  Solicitor  Jackson,  reached 
Nashville,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  settlers  there,  to  whom 
the  annual  arrival  of  such  a  train  was  all  that  an  arrival 
can  be — a  thrilling  event,  news  from  home,  reunion  with 
friends,  increase  of  wealth,  and  additional  protection 
against  a  foe  powerful  and  resolute  to  destroy. 

The  settlement  grew  apace,  however.  When  Jack 
son  arrived,  the  stations  along  the  Cumberland  may 
have  contained  five  thousand  souls  or  more.  But  the 
place  was  still  an  outpost  of  civilization,  and  so  exposed 
to  Indian  hostility  that  it  was  not  safe  to  live  five  miles 
from  the  central  stockade — a  circumstance  that  influ 
enced  the  whole  career  and  life  of  our  young  friend  the 
newly-arrived  solicitor. 

When  young  Jackson  reached  the  settlement  he 
found  the  Widow  Donelson  living  there  in  a  blockhouse, 
somewhat  more  commodious  than  any  other  dwelling  in 
the  place;  for  she  was  a  notable  housekeeper,  as  well  as 
a  woman  of  property.  With  her  then  lived  her  daughter 
Rachel  and  her  Kentucky  husband,  Lewis  Robards. 

The  presence  of  the  young  lawyer  at  Nashville  was 
most  opportune.  The  only  licensed  lawyer  in  West 
Tennessee  was  engaged  exclusively  in  the  service  of 
debtors,  who,  it  seems,  made  common  cause  against  the 
common  enemy,  their  creditors.  Jackson  came  not  as  a 


HE   STUDIES   LAW.  23 

lawyer  merely,  but  as  the  public  prosecutor,  and  there 
was  that  in  his  bearing  which  gave  assurance  that  he  was 
the  man  to  issue  unpopular  writs  and  give  them  effect. 

In  the  four  terms  of  1794  there  were  three  hundred 
and  ninety-seven  cases  before  the  same  court,  in  two 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  of  which  Jackson  acted  as 
counsel.  And  during  these  and  later  years  he  practiced 
at  the  courts  of  Jonesboro,  and  other  towns  in  East 
Tennessee. 

In  the  year  1791  the  prosperous  young  solicitor,  after 
a  courtship  of  an  extraordinary  character,  was  married 
to  Mrs.  Rachel  Robards,  the  daughter  of  that  brave  old 
pioneer,  John  Donelson. 

As  Tennessee  prospered  (and  it  prospered  rapidly 
after  the  Indians  were  subdued,  in  1794),  the  district 
attorney  could  not  but  prosper  with  it.  The  land  records 
of  1794,  1795,  J796>  and  J797  show  that  it  was  during 
those  years  that  Jackson  laid  the  foundation  of  the  large 
estate  which  he  subsequently  acquired.  Those  were  the 
days  in  which  a  lawyer's  fee  for  conducting  a  suit  of  no 
great  importance  might  be  a  square  mile  of  land,  or,  in 
Western  phrase,  a  "  six-forty."  Jackson  appears  fre 
quently  in  the  records  of  the  years  named  as  the  pur 
chaser  and  assignee  of  sections  of  land.  He  bought  six 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  the  fine  tract  which  afterward 
formed  the  Hermitage  farm  for  eight  hundred  dollars — 
a  high  price  for  that  day.  By  the  time  that  Tennessee 
entered  the  Union,  in  1796,  Jackson  was  a  very  extensive 
landowner,  and  a  man  of  fair  estate  for  a  frontiers 
man. 

The  office  of  public  prosecutor,  held  by  Andrew 
Jackson  during  the  first  seven  or  eight  years  of  his  resi 
dence  in  Tennessee,  was  one  that  a  man  of  only  ordinary 
nerve  and  courage  could  not  have  filled.  It  set  in  array 
against  him  all  the  scoundrels  in  the  Territory.  Those 


24  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

were  the  times  when  a  notorious  criminal  would  defy 
the  officers  of  justice,  and  keep  them  at  bay  for  years  at 
a  time;  when  a  district  attorney  who  made  himself  too 
officious  was  liable  to  a  shot  in  the  back  as  he  rode  to 
court ;  when  two  men,  not  satisfied  with  the  court's 
award,  would  come  out  of  the  court-house  into  the  pub 
lic  square  and  fight  it  out  in  the  presence  of  the  whole 
population,  judge  and  jury,  perhaps,  looking  on ;  when 
the  public  prosecutor  was  apt  to  be  regarded  as  the  man 
whose  office  it  was  to  spoil  good  sport  and  interfere  be 
tween  gentlemen. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IN    PUBLIC    LIFE,    AND    AS    A    MAN    OF    BUSINESS.      ' 

IN  November,  1795,  tne  Governor  of  the  Territory 
announced,  as  the  result  of  a  census  ordered  by  the  Legis 
lature,  that  Tennessee  contained  seventy-seven  thousand 
two  hundred  and  sixty-two  inhabitants,  of  whom  ten 
thousand  six  hundred  and  thirteen  were  slaves.  He 
therefore  called  upon  the  people  to  elect  delegates  to 
a  convention  for  making  a  Constitution,  and  named  Jan 
uary  n,  1796,  as  the  day  for  their  assembling  at  Knox- 
ville.  The  convention  met  accordingly,  fifty-five  mem 
bers  in  all,  five  from  each  of  the  eleven  counties.  The 
five  members  sent  from  Davidson  County  were  John 
McNairy,  Andrew  Jackson,  James  Robertson,  Thomas 
Hardeman,  and  Joel  Lewis. 

The  State  was  promptly  organized.  A  Legislature 
was  elected,  and  "  Citizen  John  Sevier,"  we  are  officially 
informed,  was  chosen  the  first  Governor.  On  the  ist  of 
June,  1796,  Tennessee  became  the  sixteenth  member 
of  the  confederacy.  Three  presidential  electors  were 
chosen,  who  cast  the  vote  of  the  State  for  Jefferson  and 
Burr.  As  yet,  Tennessee  was  entitled  to  but  one  mem 
ber  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Early  in  the  fall 
of  1796  Andrew  Jackson  was  elected  by  the  people  to 
serve  them  in  that  honorable  capacity.  Soon  after — for 
the  journey  was  a  long  one,  and  more  difficult  than  long 
— he  mounted  his  horse  and  set  out  for  Philadelphia, 
distant  nearly  eight  hundred  miles. 


26  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

The  member  from  Tennessee  reached  Philadelphia 
at  one  of  those  periods  of  commercial  depression  to 
which  the  country  has  always  been  liable.  The  finan 
cial  reader  is  aware  that  the  suspension  of  specie  pay 
ments  by  the  Bank  of  England,  which  lasted  twenty-two 
years,  began  in  February,  1797,  about  two  months  after 
Jackson's  arrival  in  Philadelphia. 

On  the  third  day  of  the  session,  a  quorum  of  the 
Senate  having  reached  Philadelphia,  and  both  Houses 
being  assembled  in  the  Representatives'  chamber,  Jack 
son  saw  General  Washington,  an  august  and  venerable 
form,  enter  the  chamber  and  deliver  his  last  speech  to 
Congress;  heard  him  recommend  the  gradual  creation 
of  a  navy  for  the  protection  of  American  commerce  in 
the  Mediterranean  against  the  pirates  of  Algiers ;  heard 
him  modestly — almost  timidly — suggest  that  American 
manufactures  ought  to  be  at  least  so  far  encouraged 
and  aided  by  Government  as  to  render  the  country  inde 
pendent  of  foreign  nations  in  time  of  war ;  heard  him 
recommend  the  establishment  of  boards  of  agriculture, 
a  national  university,  and  a  military  academy ;  heard 
him  mildly  object  to  the  policy  of  paying  low  salaries  to 
high  officers,  to  the  exclusion  from  high  office  of  all  but 
men  of  fortune ;  and  heard  him  denounce  the  spoliations 
of  our  commerce  by  cruisers  sailing  under  the  flag  of 
the  French  Republic. 

At  that  day  it  was  customary  for  each  House  to  pre 
pare,  and  in  person  deliver,  a  formal  reply  to  the  Presi 
dent's  opening  speech.  An  address  was  drawn  up  which 
concluded  with  a  series  of  paragraphs  highly  eulogistic 
not  merely  of  the  retiring  President  but  of  his  adminis 
tration.  The  more  radical  Democrats,  of  whom  Jackson 
was  one,  objected,  and,  after  two  days'  animated  discus 
sion,  Edward  Livingston  brought  the  debate  to  an  end 
by  distinctly  moving  to  strike  out  the  words,  "  wise, 


IN  PUBLIC  LIFE,  AND  AS  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS.     2] 

firm,  and  patriotic  administration  ",  and  to  insert  in 
their  place,  "  your  firmness,  wisdom,  and  patriotism." 
The  question  was  taken  on  Mr.  Livingston's  amend 
ment,  and  decided  in  the  negative.  The  whole  address 
was  then  read  with  the  slight  amendments  previously 
ordered,  and  the  question  was  about  to  be  submitted  as 
to  its  final  acceptance,  when  Mr.  Thomas  Blount,  of 
North  Carolina,  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays,  in  order 
that  posterity  might  see  that  he  did  not  consent  to  the 
address.  The  yeas  and  nays  were  then  taken,  with  this 
result :  For  accepting  the  address,  sixty-seven  votes ; 
against  its  acceptance,  twelve.  The  following  gentle 
men  voted  against  it :  Thomas  Blount,  Isaac  Coles,  Wil 
liam  B.  Giles,  Christopher  Greenup,  James  Holland,  An 
drew  Jackson,  Edward  Livingston,  Matthew  Locke, 
William  Lyman,  Samuel  Maclay,  Nathaniel  Macon,  and 
Abraham  Venable. 

Jackson's  vote  on  this  occasion  merely  shows  that  in 
1796  he  belonged  to  the  most  radical  wing  of  the  Jeffer- 
sonian  party,  the  *'  Mountain  "  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives. 

On  Thursday,  December  29,  1796,  the  member  from 
Tennessee  first  addressed  the  House.  In  1793,  while 
Tennessee  was  still  a  Territory  under  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  General  Sevier,  induced  thereto  by  extreme 
provocation  and  the  imminent  peril  of  the  settlements, 
led  an  expedition  against  the  Indians  without  waiting 
for  the  authorization  of  the  General  Government.  One 
of  those  who  served  on  this  expedition  was  a  young 
student  by  the  name  of  Hugh  L.  White,  afterward  judge, 
senator,  and  candidate  for  the  presidency.  Young 
White  killed  a  great  chief,  the  Kingfisher,  in  battle. 
After  the  return  of  the  expedition  it  became  a  question 
whether  the  Government  would  pay  the  expenses  of  an 
expedition  which  it  had  not  authorized.  To  test  the 


28  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

question,  Hugh  L.  White  sent  a  petition  to  Congress 
asking  compensation  for  his  services.  On  the  day 
named  above  the  subject  came  before  the  Committee  of 
the  Whole  House,  when  a  report  on  Mr.  White's  petition, 
from  the  Secretary  of  War,  was  read.  The  report  re 
counted  the  facts,  and  added  that  it  was  for  the  House 
to  decide  whether  the  provocation  and  danger  were 
such  as  to  justify  the  calling  out  of  the  troops.  Where 
upon  "  Mr.  A.  Jackson,"  in  a  few  energetic  remarks, 
defended  the  claims  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The  debate 
continued  for  a  considerable  time,  Jackson  occasionally 
interposing  explanations,  and  replying  to  the  objections 
of  members.  The  result  of  his  exertions  was,  that  the 
subject  was  referred  to  a  select  committee  of  five,  Mr.  A. 
Jackson  chairman ;  who  reported,  of  course,  in  favor  of 
the  petitioner,  and  recommended  that  the  sum  of  twenty- 
two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixteen  dollars  be  ap 
propriated  for  the  payment  of  the  troops,  which  was 
done. 

The  member  from  Tennessee  did  not  again  address 
the  House  of  Representatives.  His  name  appears  in  the 
records  thenceforth  only  in  the  lists  of  yeas  and  nays. 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  3d  of  March,  and  An 
drew  Jackson  took  a  final  farewell  of  the  House,  for  at 
the  war  session  of  the  following  summer  he  did  not  ap 
pear.  His  conduct  in  the  House  of  Representatives  was 
keenly  approved  by  Tennesseeans. 

A  vacancy  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  occur 
ring  this  year,  Andrew  Jackson  received  the  appoint 
ment,  and  returned  to  Philadelphia  in  the  autumn  gf 
1797,  a  Senator. 

In  April,  1798,  Senator  Jackson  asked  and  obtained 
leave  of  absence  for  the  remainder  of  the  session.  He 
went  home  to  Nashville,  and  immediately  resigned  his 
seat  in  the  Senate. 


IN  PUBLIC  LIFE,  AND  AS  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS.     29 

Early  in  the  year  1798,  then,  Andrew  Jackson  re 
turned  to  his  home  on  the  banks  of  the  Cumberland,  a 
private  citizen,  and  intending  to  remain  such.  But  it 
seems  he  could  not  yet  be  spared  from  public  life.  Soon 
after  his  return  to  Tennessee  he  was  elected  by  the  Legis 
lature  to  a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State — a  post  which  he  said  he  accepted  in  obedience 
to  his  favorite  maxim,  that  the  citizen  of  a  free  com 
monwealth  should  never  seek  and  never  decline  public 
duty.  The  office  assigned  him  was  next  in  considera 
tion,  as  in  emolument,  to  that  of  Governor  ;  the  Govern 
or's  salary  being  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year, 
and  the  judge's  six  hundred.  He  retained  the  judgeship 
for  six  years,  holding  courts  in  due  succession  at  Jones- 
boro,  Knoxville,  Nashville,  and  at  places  of  less  im 
portance,  dispensing  the  best  justice  of  which  he  was 
master. 

It  was  while  Jackson  was  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Tennessee  that  his  feud  with  Governor  Sevier  came  to 
an  issue.  First,  there  was  a  coolness  between  the  two 
men ;  then  altercations ;  then  total  estrangement ;  then 
loud,  recriminating  talk  on  both  sides,  reported  to  both ; 
then  various  personal  encounters,  of  which  I  heard  in 
Tennessee  so  many  different  accounts  that  I  was  con 
vinced  no  one  knew  anything  about  them.  At  last,  in 
the  year  1801,  Jackson  gained  an  advantage  over  Sevier 
which  was  peculiarly  calculated  to  wound,  disgust,  and 
exasperate  the  impetuous  old  soldier,  victor  in  so  many 
battles.  Sevier  was  then  out  of  office.  The  major-gen 
eralship  of  militia  was  vacant,  and  the  two  belligerents 
were  candidates  for  the  post,  which  at  that  time  was 
keenly  coveted  by  the  very  first  men  in  the  State.  Nor 
was  it  then  merely  an  affair  of  title,  regimentals,  and 
showy  gallopings  on  the  days  of  general  muster.  There 
were  then  Indians  to  be  kept  in  awe,  as  well  as  constant 


3o  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

rumors  and  threatenings  of  war  with  France  or  England. 
The  office  of  major-general  was  in  the  gift  of  the  field 
officers,  who  were  empowered  by  the  Constitution  to  se 
lect  their  chief.  The  canvassings  and  general  agitation 
which  preceded  the  election  on  this  occasion  may  be  im 
agined.  The  day  came.  The  election  was  held.  There 
was  a  tie,  an  equal  number  of  votes  being  cast  for  Jack 
son  and  Sevier.  In  such  a  conjuncture  the  Governor  of 
the  State,  being,  from  his  office,  commander-in-chief  of 
the  militia,  had  a  casting  vote.  Governor  Roane  gave 
his  vote  for  Jackson,  who  thus  became  the  major-gen 
eral,  to  the  discomfiture  of  the  other  competitor. 

Jackson,  as  we  have  seen,  accepted  the  judgeship  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  intending  to  carry  on  the  business 
of  a  merchant,  and  to  snatch  time  enough  between  his 
courts  to  make  an  occasional  journey  to  Philadelphia 
for  the  purchase  of  a  fresh  supply  of  goods.  For  a 
while  all  went  well  with  him;  but  eventually  came  the 
crash  and  panic  of  1798  and  1799.  Notice  was  for 
warded  to  Jackson  to  provide  for  the  payment  of  the 
notes  with  which  he  had  bought  his  stock  of  goods. 
This  was  a  staggering  blow,  not  only  because  the 
amount  of  the  loss  was  large,  but  because  the  notes 
had  to  be  paid  in  money — real  money,  money  that  was 
current  in  Philadelphia — which,  of  all  commodities,  was 
the  one  most  scarce  in  the  new  States  of  the  far  West. 
To  the  honor  of  Andrew  Jackson  be  it  recorded,  that 
each  of  these  large  notes  was  paid,  principal  and  in 
terest,  on  the  day  of  its  maturity. 

Andrew  Jackson  was  a  man  singularly  averse  to  any 
thing  complicated,  and  of  all  complications  the  one  un 
der  which  he  was  most  restive  was  debt.  So,  about  the 
year  1804,  he  resolved  upon  simplifying  or  "straighten 
ing  out "  his  affairs  and  commencing  life  anew.  He  re 
signed  his  judgeship.  He  sold  his  house  and  improved 


IN  PUBLIC  LIFE,  AND  AS  A  MAN  OF  BUSINESS.     3! 

farm  on  Hunter's  Hill.  He  sold  twenty-five  thousand 
acres,  more  or  less,  of  his  wild  lands  in  other  parts  of 
the  State.  He  paid  off  all  his  debts.  He  removed  with 
his  negroes,  to  the  place  now  known  as  the  Hermitage, 
and  lived  once  more  in  a  house  of  logs.  He  went  more 
extensively  into  mercantile  business  than  ever. 

Jackson  was  now  a  man  with  many  irons  in  the  fire. 
First,  there  was  his  farm,  cultivated  by  slaves,  superin 
tended  by  Mrs.  Jackson  in  the  absence  of  her  lord.  The 
large  family  of  slaves,  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number, 
of  which  he  died  possessed,  were  mostly  descended  from 
the  few  that  he  owned  in  his  storekeeping  days.  He 
was  a  vigilant  and  successful  farmer.  To  use  the  lan 
guage  of  the  South,  "  He  made  good  crops."  He  was 
proud  of  a  well-cultivated  field.  Every  visitor  was  in 
vited  to  go  the  rounds  of  his  farm  and  see  his  cotton, 
corn,  and  wheat,  his  horses,  cows,  and  mules.  He  had 
also  a  backwoodsman's  skill  in  repairing  and  contriv 
ing,  and  spent  many  a  day  in  putting  an  old  plow  in 
order  or  finishing  off  a  new  cabin. 

On  his  plantation  he  had  a  cotton  gin,  a  rarity  at 
that  day,  upon  which  there  was  a  special  tax  of  twenty 
dollars  a  year.  The  tax-books  of  Davidson  County  show 
that  in  1804  there  were  but  twenty-four  gins  in  the 
county,  of  which  Andrew  Jackson  was  the  owner  of  one. 
This  cotton  gin  served  to  clean  his  own  cotton,  the  cot 
ton  of  his  neighbors,  and  that  which  he  took  in  exchange 
for  goods. 

General  Jackson's  fine  horses  were  also  a  source  of 
profit  to  him.  At  that  period  a  good  horse  was  among 
the  pioneer's  first  necessities  and  most  valued  posses 
sions;  and  to  this  day  the  horse  is  a  creature  of  far 
more  importance  at  the  South,  where  every  one  rides 
and  must  ride  on  horseback,  than  at  the  North,  where 
riding  is  the  luxury  of  the  few. 


32  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Soon  after  Jackson  left  the  bench  he  set  off  for  a 
tour  in  Virginia,  then  universally  renowned  for  her  breed 
of  horses,  with  the  sole  object  of  procuring  the  most 
perfect  horse  in  the  country.  The  far-famed  Truxton 
was  the  result  of  this  journey — Truxton,  winner  of  many 
a  well-contested  race  and  progenitor  of  a  line  of  Trux- 
tons  highly  prized  in  Tennessee  to  this  hour. 


CHAPTER  V. 

DUEL    WITH    CHARLES    DICKINSON. 

THE  Revolutionary  War  introduced  among  the  people 
of  rustic  America  the  practice  of  resorting  to  arms  for 
the  settlement  of  quarrels.  Every  man  who  had  worn  a 
sash  or  even  shouldered  a  musket  in  that  contest  seems 
to  have  hugged  the  delusion  that  he  was  thenceforth 
subject  to  the  code  of  honor.  He  retained  the  title  and 
affected  the  tone  of  a  soldier.  I  call  it  affectation,  be 
lieving  that  no  man  with  Saxon  blood  dominant  in  his 
veins  ever  yet  fought  a  duel  without  being  distinctly 
conscious  that  he  was  doing  a  very  silly  thing.  Yet 
there  never  existed  a  people  so  given  to  dueling  and 
other  domestic  battling  as  the  people  of  the  South  and 
West  from  1790  to  1810.  In  Charleston,  about  the  year 
1800,  we  are  told,  there  was  a  club  of  duelists,  in  which 
every  man  took  precedence  according  to  the  number  of 
times  he  had  been  "  out  " — so  difficult  was  it  for  the 
duelists  to  support  the  reproaches  of  their  own  good 
sense.  "  I  believe,"  says  General  William  Henry  Harri 
son,  "  that  there  were  more  duels  in  the  Northwestern 
army  between  the  years  1791  and  1795  than  ever  took 
place  in  the  same  length  of  time,  and  among  so  small  a 
body  of  men  as  composed  the  commissioned  officers  of 
the  army,  either  in  America  or  any  other  country." 

As  late  as  1834,  Miss  Martineau  tells  us  there  were 
more  duels  fought  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans  than  there 
are  days  in  the  year — "  fifteen  on  one  Sunday  morning  " ; 


34  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"one  hundred  and  two  between  the  ist  of  January  and 
the  end  of  April." 

In  the  interior  settlements,  if  dueling  was  rarer,  fight 
ing  of  a  less  formal  and  deadly  character  was  so  com 
mon  as  to  excite  scarcely  any  notice  or  remark.  It  was 
taken  for  granted,  apparently,  that  whenever  a  number 
of  men  were  gathered  together  for  any  purpose  what 
ever  there  must  be  fighting.  The  meetings  of  the  Legis 
lature,  the  convening  of  courts,  the  assemblages  out  of 
doors  for  religious  purposes,  were  all  alike  the  occa 
sion  both  of  single  combats  and  general  fights.  "  The 
exercises  of  a  market  day,"  says  the  Rev.  Mr.  Milburn, 
"  were  usually  varied  by  political  speeches,  a  sheriff's 
sale,  half  a  dozen  free  fights,  and  thrice  as  many  horse- 
swaps." 

Let  most  of  the  old  Jacksonian  quarrels  pass  into 
oblivion.  Some  of  them,  however,  were  of  such  a  na 
ture,  and  are  so  notorious,  that  they  can  not  be  omitted 
in  any  fair  account  of  his  career.  We  have  now  arrived 
at  one  of  these.  The  series  of  trivial  and  absurd  events 
which  led  to  the  horrible  tragedy  of  the  Dickinson  duel 
— events  which,  but  for  that  tragic  ending,  would  be  noth 
ing  more  than  amusing  illustrations  of  the  manners  of  a 
past  age — now  claim  our  attention. 

For  the  autumn  races  of  1805,  a  great  match  was  ar 
ranged  between  General  Jackson's  Truxton  and  Captain 
Joseph  Ervin's  Plowboy.  The  stakes  were  two  thousand 
dollars,  payable  on  the  day  of  the  race  in  notes,  which 
notes  were  to  be  then  due;  forfeit,  eight  hundred  dollars. 
Six  persons  were  interested  in  this  race :  on  Truxton's 
side,  General  Jackson,  Major  W.  P.  Anderson,  Major  Ver- 
rell,  and  Captain  Pryor ;  on  the  side  of  Plowboy,  Captain 
Ervin  and  his  son-in-law,  Charles  Dickinson.  Before 
the  day  appointed  for  the  race  arrived  Ervin  and  Dick 
inson  decided  to  pay  the  forfeit  and  withdraw  their 


DUEL   WITH   CHARLES   DICKINSON. 


35 


horse,  which  was  amicably  done,  and  the  affair  was  sup 
posed  to  be  at  an  end. 

About  this  time  a  report  reached  General  Jackson's 
ears  that  Charles  Dickinson  had  uttered  disparaging 
words  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  which  was  with  Jackson  the  sin 
not  to  be  pardoned.  Dickinson  was  a  lawyer  by  profes 
sion,  but,  like  Jackson,  speculated  in  produce,  horses, 
and,  it  is  said,  in  slaves.  He  was  well  connected,  pos 
sessed  considerable  property,  and  had  a  large  circle  of 
gay  friends.  He  is  represented  as  a  somewhat  wild,  dis 
sipated  young  man,  yet  not  unamiable,  nor  disposed 
wantonly  to  wound  the  feelings  of  others.  When  excited 
by  drink,  or  by  any  other  cause,  he  was  prone  to  talk 
loosely  and  swear  violently,  as  drunken  men  will.  He 
had  the  reputation  of  being  the  best  shot  in  Tennessee. 
Upon  hearing  this  report,  General  Jackson  called  on 
Dickinson  and  asked  him  if  he  had  used  the  language 
attributed  to  him.  Dickinson  replied  that  if  he  had,  it 
must  have  been  when  he  was  drunk.  Further  explana 
tions  and  denials  removed  all  ill  feeling  from  General 
Jackson's  mind,  and  they  separated  in  a  friendly  manner. 

A  second  time,  it  is  said,  Dickinson  uttered  offensive 
words  respecting  Mrs.  Jackson  in  a  tavern  at  Nashville, 
which  were  duly  conveyed  by  some  meddling  parasite 
to  General  Jackson.  Jackson,  I  am  told,  then  went  to 
Captain  Ervin  and  advised  him  to  exert  his  influence 
over  his  son-in-law,  and  induce  him  to  restrain  his 
tongue  and  comport  himself  like  a  gentleman  in  his 
cups.  "I  wish  no  quarrel  with  him,"  said  Jackson;  "he 
is  used  by  my  enemies  in  Nashville,  who  are  urging  him 
on  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  me.  Advise  him  to  stop  in 
time."  It  appears,  however,  that  enmity  grew  between 
these  two  men.  In  January,  1806,  when  the  events  oc 
curred  that  are  now  to  be  related,  there  was  the  worst 
possible  feeling  between  them. 


36  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Deadly  enmity  existing  between  Jackson  and  Dickin 
son,  a  very  trivial  event  was  sufficient  to  bring  them 
into  collision.  A  young  lawyer  of  Nashville,  named 
Swann,  misled  by  false  information,  circulated  a  report 
that  Jackson  had  accused  the  owners  of  Plowboy  of  pay 
ing  their  forfeit  in  notes  other  than  those  which  had 
been  agreed  upon — notes  less  valuable  because  not  due 
at  the  date  of  settling.  General  Jackson,  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  Mr.  Swann,  went  out  of  his  way  to  assail 
Charles  Dickinson  by  name,  calling  him  "  a  base  pol 
troon  and  cowardly  talebearer,"  requesting  Swann  to 
show  Dickinson  these  offensive  words,  and  offering  to 
meet  him  in  the  field  if  he  desired  satisfaction  for  the 
same.  Upon  reading  the  letter,  Dickinson  published  a 
card  which  contained  these  words : 

"  I  declare  him,  notwithstanding  he  is  a  major-gen 
eral  of  the  militia  of  Mero  district,  to  be  a  worthless 
scoundrel,  '  a  poltroon  and  a  coward  ' — a  man  who,  by 
frivolous  and  evasive  pretexts,  avoided  giving  the  satis 
faction  which  was  due  to  a  gentleman  whom  he  had  in 
jured.  This  has  prevented  me  from  calling  on  him  in 
the  manner  I  should  otherwise  have  done,  for  I  am  well 
convinced  that  he  is  too  great  a  coward  to  administer 
any  of  those  anodynes  he  promised  me  in  his  letter  to 
Mr.  Swann." 

Jackson  instantly  challenged  Dickinson.  The  chal 
lenge  was  promptly  accepted.  Friday,  May  30,  1806, 
was  the  day  appointed  for  the  meeting ;  the  weapons, 
pistols;  the  place,  a  spot  on  the  banks  of  the  Red  River, 
in  Kentucky. 

The  place  appointed  for  the  meeting  was  a  long  day's 
ride  from  Nashville.  Thursday  morning,  before  the 
dawn  of  day,  Dickinson  stole  from  the  side  of  his  young 
and  beautiful  wife,  and  began  silently  to  prepare  for  the 
journey. 


DUEL  WITH   CHARLES   DICKINSON. 


37 


He  mounted  his  horse  and  repaired  to  the  rendezvous 
where  his  second  and  half  a  dozen  of  the  gay  blades  of 
Nashville  were  waiting  to  escort  him  on  his  journey. 
Away  they  rode,  in  the  highest  spirits,  as  though  they 
were  upon  a  party  of  pleasure.  Indeed,  they  made  a 
party  of  pleasure  of  it.  When  they  stopped  for  rest  or 
refreshment,  Dickinson  is  said  to  have  amused  the  com 
pany  by  displaying  his  wonderful  skill  with  the  pistol. 
Once,  at  a  distance  of  twenty-four  feet,  he  fired  four 
balls,  each  at  the  word  of  command,  into  a  space  that 
could  be  covered  by  a  silver  dollar.  Several  times  he 
cut  a  string  with  his  bullet  from  the  same  distance.  It 
is  said  that  he  left  a  severed  string  hanging  near  a  tavr 
ern,  and  said  to  the  landlord,  as  he  rode  away,  "  If  Gen 
eral  Jackson  comes  along  this  road,  show  him  that !  " 

Very  different  was  the  demeanor  of  General  Jackson 
and  the  party  that  accompanied  him.  His  second,  Gen 
eral  Thomas  Overton,  an  old  Revolutionary  soldier, 
.versed  in  the  science  and  familiar  with  the  practice  of 
dueling,  had  reflected  deeply  upon  the  conditions  of  the 
coming  combat,  with  the  view  to  conclude  upon  the 
tactics  most  likely  to  save  his  friend  from  Dickinson's 
unerring  bullet.  For  this  duel  was  not  to  be  the  amus 
ing  mockery  that  some  modern  duels  have  been.  This 
duel  was  to  be  real.  It  was  to  be  an  affair  in  which 
each  man  was  to  strive  with  his  utmost  skill  to  effect  the 
purpose  of  the  occasion — disable  his  antagonist  and 
save  his  own  life.  As  the  principal  and  the  second  rode 
apart  from  the  rest,  they  discussed  all  the  chances  and 
probabilities  with  the  single  aim  to  decide  upon  a  course 
which  should  result  in  the  disabling  of  Dickinson  and 
the  saving  of  Jackson.  The  mode  of  fighting  which 
had  been  agreed  upon  was  somewhat  peculiar.  The 
pistols  were  to  be  held  downward  until  the  word  was 
given  to  fire ;  then  each  man  was  to  fire  as  soon  as  he 
4 


38  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

pleased.  With  such  an  arrangement  it  was  scarcely  pos 
sible  that  both  the  pistols  should  be  discharged  at  the 
same  moment.  There  was  a  chance,  even,  that  by  ex 
treme  quickness  of  movement  one  man  could  bring 
down  his  antagonist  without  himself  receiving  a  shot. 
The  question  anxiously  discussed  between  Jackson  and 
Overton  was  this :  Shall  we  try  to  get  the  first  shot,  or 
shall  we  permit  Dickinson  to  have  it  ?  They  agreed,  at 
length,  that  it  would  be  decidedly  better  to  let  Dickin 
son  fire  first. 

Jackson  ate  heartily  at  supper  that  night,  convers 
ing  in  a  lively,  pleasant  manner,  and  smoked  his  evening 
pipe  as  usual.  Jacob  Smith  remembers  being  exceed 
ingly  well  pleased  with  his  guest,  and,  on  learning  the 
cause  of  his  visit,  heartily  wishing  him  a  safe  deliverance. 
Before  breakfast  on  the  next  morning  the  whole  party 
mounted  and  rode  down  the  road  that  wound  close 
along  the  picturesque  banks  of  the  stream.  The 
horsemen  rode  about  a  mile  along  the  river,  then 
turned  down  toward  the  river  to  a  point  on  the  bank 
where  they  had  expected  to  find  a  ferryman.  No  ferry 
man  appearing,  Jackson  spurred  his  horse  into  the 
stream  and  dashed  across,  followed  by  all  his  party. 
They  rode  into  the  poplar  forest  two  hundred  yards  or 
less,  to  a  spot  near  the  center  of  a  level  platform  or 
river  bottom,  then  covered  with  forest,  now  smiling  with 
cultivated  fields.  The  horsemen  halted  and  dismount 
ed  just  before  reaching  the  appointed  place.  Jackson, 
Overton,  and  a  surgeon  who  had  come  with  them  from 
home  walked  on  together,  and  the  rest  led  their  horses 
a  short  distance  in  an  opposite  direction. 

"  How  do  you  feel  about  it  now,  general  ? "  asked 
one  of  the  party,  as  Jackson  turned  to  go. 

"  Oh,  all  right,"  replied  Jackson,  gayly ;  "  I  shall 
wing  him,  never  fear." 


DUEL  WITH   CHARLES   DICKINSON. 


39 


Dickinson's  second  won  the  choice  of  position,  and 
Jackson's  the  office  of  giving  the  word.  The  astute 
Overton  considered  this  giving  of  the  word  a  matter  of 
great  importance,  and  he  had  already  determined  how 
he  would  give  it  if  the  lot  fell  to  him.  The  eight  paces 
were  measured  off  and  the  men  placed.  Both  were 
perfectly  collected.  All  the  politenesses  of  such  occa 
sions  were  very  strictly  and  elegantly  performed.  Jack 
son  was  dressed  in  a  loose  frock-coat,  buttoned  carelessly 
over  his  chest  and  concealing  in  some  degree  the  ex 
treme  slenderness  of  his  figure.  Dickinson  was  the 
younger  and  handsomer  man  of  the  two.  But  Jackson's 
tall,  erect  figure,  and  the  intensity  of  his  demeanor,  it 
is  said,  gave  him  a  most  superior  and  commanding  air, 
as  he  stood  under  the  tall  poplars  on  this  bright  May 
morning,  silently  awaiting  the  moment. 

"  Are  you  ready  ? "  said  Overton. 

"  I  am  ready,"  replied  Dickinson. 

"  I  am  ready,"  said  Jackson. 

The  words  were  no  sooner  pronounced  than  Overton, 
with  a  sudden  shout,  cried,  using  his  old-country  pro 
nunciation  : 

"  FERE ! " 

Dickinson  raised  his  pistol  quickly  and  fired.  Over- 
ton,  who  was  looking  with  anxiety  and  dread  at  Jackson, 
saw  a  puff  of  dust  fly  from  the  breast  of  his  coat,  and 
saw  him  raise  his  left  arm  and  place.it  tightly  across  his 
chest.  He  is  surely  hit,  thought  Overton,  and  in  a  bad 
place,  too.  But  no ;  he  does  not  fall.  He  raised  his 
pistol.  Overton  glanced  at  Dickinson.  Amazed  at  the 
unwonted  failure  of  his  aim,  and  apparently  appalled  at 
the  awful  figure  and  face  before  him,  Dickinson  had  un 
consciously  recoiled  a  pace  or  two. 

"  Great  God  !  "  he  faltered,  "  have  I  missed 
him  ? " 


40  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"  Back  to  the  MARK,  sir !  "  shrieked  Overton  with  his 
hand  upon  his  pistol. 

•  Dickinson  recovered  his  composure,  stepped  forward 
to  the  peg,  and  stood  with  his  eyes  averted  from  his  an 
tagonist.  All  this  was  the  work  of  a  moment,  though  it 
requires  many  words  to  tell  it. 

General  Jackson  took  deliberate  aim  and  pulled  the 
trigger.  The  pistol  neither  snapped  nor  went  off.  He 
looked  at  the  trigger,  and  discovered  that  it  had  stopped 
at  half-cock.  He  drew  it  back  to  its  place  and  took 
aim  a  second  time.  He  fired.  Dickinson's  face  blanched ; 
He  reeled ;  his  friends  rushed  toward  him,  caught  him  in 
their  arms,  and  gently  seated  him  on  the  ground,  lean 
ing  against  a  bush.  They  stripped  off  his  clothes.  The 
blood  was  gushing  from  his  side  in  a  torrent.  The  ball 
had  passed  through  the  body,  below  the  ribs.  Such  a 
wound  could  not  but  be  fatal. 

Overton  went  forward  and  learned  the  condition  of 
the  wounded  man.  Rejoining  his  principal,  he  said, 
'•'He  won't  want  anything  more  of  you,  general,"  and 
conducted  him  from  the  ground.  They  had  gone  a  hun 
dred  yards,  Overton  walking  on  one  side  of  Jackson, 
the  surgeon  on  the  other,  and  neither  speaking  a  word, 
when  the  surgeon  observed  that  one  of  Jackson's  shoes 
was  full  of  blood. 

"My  God!  General  Jackson,  are  you  hit? "he  ex 
claimed,  pointing  to  the  blood. 

"Oh!  I  believe,"  replied  Jackson,  "that  he  has 
pinked  me  a  little.  Let's  look  at  it.  But  say  nothing 
about  it  there,"  pointing  to  the  house. 

He  opened  his  coat.  Dickinson's  aim  had  been 
perfect.  He  had  sent  the  ball  precisely  where  he  sup 
posed  Jackson's  heart  was  beating.  But  the  thinness  of 
his  body  and  the  looseness  of  his  coat  combining  to  de 
ceive  Dickinson,  the  ball  had  only  broken  a  rib  or  two 


DUEL   WITH   CHARLES   DICKINSON.  4j 

and  raked  the  breast-bone.  It  was  a  somewhat  painful, 
bad-looking  wound,  but  neither  severe  nor  dangerous; 
and  he  was  able  to  ride  to  the  tavern  without  much  in 
convenience.  Upon  approaching  the  house  he  went  up 
to  one  of  the  negro  women  who  was  churning  and  asked 
her  if  the  butter  had  come.  She  said  it  was  just  coming. 
He  asked  for  some  buttermilk.  While  she  was  getting 
it  for  him  she  observed  him  furtively  open  his  coat  and 
look  within  it.  She  saw  that  his  shirt  was  soaked  with 
frlood,  and  she  stood  gazing  in  blank  horror  at  the  sight, 
dipper  in  hand.  He  caught  her  eye,  and  hastily  but 
toned  his  coat  again.  She  dipped  out  a  quart  measure 
full  of  buttermilk  and  gave  it  to  him.  He  drank  it  off 
at  a  draught ;  then  went  in,  took  off  his  coat,  and  had 
his  wound  carefully  examined  and  dressed.  That  done, 
he  dispatched  one  of  his  retinue  to  Dr.  Catlett,  to  in 
quire  respecting  the  condition  of  Dickinson,  and  to  say 
that  the  surgeon  attending  himself  would  be  glad  to 
contribute  his  aid  toward  Mr.  Dickinson's  relief.  Polite 
reply  was  returned  that  Mr.  Dickinson's  case  was  past 
surgery.  In  the  course  of  the  day  General  Jackson  sent 
a  bottle  of  wine  to  Dr.  Catlett  for  the  use  of  his  patient. 

But  there  was  one  gratification  which  Jackson  could 
not,  even  in  such  circumstances,  grant  him.  A  very  old 
friend  of  General  Jackson  writes  to  me  thus:  "Although 
the  general  had  been  wounded,  he  did  not  desire  it 
should  be  known  until  he  had  left  the  neighborhood, 
and  had  therefore  concealed  it  at  first  from  his  own 
friends.  His  reason  for  this,  as  he  once  stated  to  me, 
was,  that  as  Dickinson  considered  himself  the  best  shot 
in  the  world,  and  was  certain  of  killing  him  at  the  first 
fire,  he  did  not  want  him  to  have  the  gratification  even 
of  knowing  that  he  had  touched  him." 

Poor  Dickinson  bled  to  death. 

General  Jackson's  wound  proved  to  be  more  severe 


42  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

and  troublesome  than  was  at  first  anticipated.  It  was 
nearly  a  month  before  he  could  move  about  without  in 
convenience,  and  when  the  wound  healed  it  healed 
falsely ;  that  is,  some  of  the  viscera  were  slightly  dis 
placed,  and  so  remained.  Twenty  years  after,  this  for 
gotten  wound  forced  itself  upon  his  remembrance,  and 
kept  itself  there  for  many  a  year. 

It  is  not  true,  as  has  been  alleged,  that  this  duel  did 
not  affect  General  Jackson's  popularity  in  Tennessee. 
Jt  followed  quick  upon  his  feud  with  Governor  Sevier, 
and  both  quarrels  told  against  him  in  many  quarters 
of  the  State.  And  though  there  were  large  numbers 
whom  the  nerve  and  courage  which  he  had  displayed 
in  the  duel  blinded  to  all  considerations  of  civilization 
and  morality,  yet  it  is  certain  that  at  no  time  between 
the  years  1806  and  1812  could  General  Jackson  have 
been  elected  to  any  office  in  Tennessee  that  required 
a  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  whole  State.  Beyond 
the  circle  of  his  own  friends,  which  was  large,  there 
existed  a  very  general  impression  that  he  was  a  violent, 
overbearing,  passionate  man. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

AT    HOME. 

BETWEEN  the  fighting  of  this  bloody  duel  and  the 
beginning  of  the  War  of  1812  there  is  not  much  to  re 
late  of  General  Jackson.  A  few  incidents  and  anecdotes 
of  his  private  life  may  detain  us  a  moment  from  the  stir 
ring  scenes  of  his  military  career. 

He  removed,  as  we  have  before  related,  from  Hunt 
er's  Hill,  about  the  year  1804,  to  the  adjoining  estate, 
which  he  named  the  Hermitage.  The  spacious  mansion 
now  standing  on  that  estate,  in  which  he  resided  during 
the  last  twenty-five  years  of  his  life,  was  not  built  until 
about  the  year  1819.  A  square,  two-story  blockhouse 
was  General  Jackson's  first  dwelling-place  on  the  Her 
mitage  farm.  This  house,  like  many  others  of  its  class, 
contained  three  rooms — one  on  the  ground  floor  and 
two  upstairs.  To  this  house  was  soon  added  a  smaller 
one,  which  stood'  about  twenty  feet  from  the  principal 
structure,  and  was  connected  with  it  by  a  covered  pas 
sage.  This  was  General  Jackson's  establishment  from 
1804  to  1819. 

In  an  establishment  so  restricted  General  Jackson 
and  his  good-hearted  wife  continued  to  dispense  a  most 
generous  hospitality.  A  lady  of  Nashville  told  me  that 
she  has  often  been  at  the  Hermitage  in  those  simple  old 
times,  when  there  was  in  each  of  the  four  available 
rooms  not  a  guest  merely  but  a  family;  .while  the 
young  men  and  solitary  travelers  who  chanced  to  drop 


44  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

in  disposed  of  themselves  on  the  piazza,  or  any  other 
half  shelter  about  the  house.  "  Put  down  in  your  book," 
said  one  of  General  Jackson's  oldest  neighbors,  "  that 
the  general  was  the  prince  of  hospitality;  not  because 
he  entertained  a  great  many  people,  but  because  the 
poor,  belated  peddler  was  as  welcome  as  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  made  so  much  at  his  ease  that 
he  felt  as  though  he  had  got  home." 

On  May  29,  1805,  Colonel  Burr,  then  making  his  first 
tour  of  the  Western  country,  visited  the  thriving  frontier 
town  of  Nashville.  Throughout  the  West  Burr  was  re 
ceived  as  the  great  man,  and  nowhere  with  such  distinc 
tion  as  at  Nashville.  People  poured  in  from  the  adjacent 
country  to  see  and  welcome  so  renowned  a  personage. 
Flags,  cannons,  and  martial  music  contributed  to  the 
Mat  of  his  reception.  An  extemporized  but  superabun 
dant  dinner  concluded  the  ceremonies,  in  the  course  of 
which  Burr  addressed  the  multitude  with  the  serious 
grace  that  usually  marked  his  demeanor  in  public.  Could 
Jackson  be  absent  from  such  an  ovation — Jackson,  who 
had  been  with  the  great  man  in  Congress,  and  worked 
in  concert  with  him  for  Tennessee  ?  On  the  morning  of 
this  bright  day  General  Jackson  mounted  one  of  his 
finest  horses  and  rode  to  Nashville,  attended  by  a  servant 
leading  a  milk-white  mare.  In  the  course  of  the  dinner 
General  Jackson  gave  a  toast,  "  Millions  for  defense, 
but  not  one  cent  for  tribute!"  and  when  Colonel  Burr 
retired  from  the  apartment  General  Overton  proposed 
his  health  to  the  company.  General  Jackson  returned 
home  at  the  close  of  the  day,  accompanied  by  Colonel 
Burr,  who  was  to  be  his  guest  during  his  stay  in  that 
vicinity.  Burr  remained  only  five  days  at  the  Hermit 
age,  but  promised  to  make  a  longer  visit  on  his  return. 

On  August  6,  1805,  Burr  visited  the  Hermitage 
•again  on  his  return  from  New  Orleans,  as  he  had  prom- 


AT    HOME. 


45 


ised.  Of  this  visit,  which  lasted  eight  days,  we  have 
no  knowledge  except  that  derived  from  Burr's  diary : 
"Arrived  at  Nashville  on  the  6th  August.  For  a  week 
I  have  been  lounging  at  the  house  of  General  Jackson, 
once  a  lawyer,  after  a  judge,  now  a  planter;  a  man  of 
intelligence,  and  one  of  those  prompt,  frank,  ardent 
souls  whom  I  love  to  meet.  The  general  has  no  chil 
dren,  but  two  lovely  nieces  made  a  visit  of  some  days, 
contributed  greatly  to  my  amusement,  and  have  cured 
me  of  all  the  evils  of  my  wilderness  jaunt.  If  I  had 
time  I  would  describe  to  you  these  two  girls,  for  they 
deserve  it.  To-morrow  I  move  on  toward  Lexington." 
There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  topic  upon  which  Colonel 
Burr  and  General  Jackson  chiefly  conversed  on  this  oc 
casion.  There  was  but  one  topic  then  in  the  Western 
country — the  threatened  war  with  Spain. 

Colonel  Burr  returned  to  the  East.  Months  passed, 
during  which  Jackson  and  Burr  occasionally  corre 
sponded. 

In  September,  1806,  three  months  after  the  duel  with 
Dickinson,  Colonel  Burr  was  again  the  guest  of  General 
Jackson.  On  this  occasion  he  had  brought  to  the  West 
ern  country,  and  left  on  Blennerhassett  Island,  his  daugh 
ter  Theodosia,  intending  never  again  to  return  to  the 
Eastern  States.  He  was  in  the  full  tide  of  preparation 
for  descending  to  the  lower  country.  The  morning 
after  his  arrival  at  the  Hermitage,  General  Jackson,  on 
hospitable  thoughts  intent,  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Nash 
ville  the  following  note :  "Colonel  Burr  is  with  me ;  he 
arrived  last  night.  I  would  be  happy  if  you  would  call 
and  see  the  colonel  before  you  return.  Say  to  General 
O.  that  I  shall  expect  to  see  him  here  on  to-morrow  with 
you.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  us  to  do  something  as  a 
mark  of  attention  to  the  colonel  ?  He  has  always  been 
and  is  still  a  true  and  trusty  friend  to  Tennessee.  If  Gen- 


46  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

eral  Robertson  is  with  you  when  you  receive  this,  be 
good  enough  to  say  to  him  that  Colonel  Burr  is  in  the 
country.  I  know  that  General  Robertson  will  be  happy 
in  joining  in  anything  that  will  tend  to  show  a  mark  of 
respect  to  this  worthy  visitant." 

After  a  stay  of  a  few  days  Colonel  Burr  left  Ten 
nessee  to  take  up  the  threads  of  his  enterprise  in  Ken 
tucky  and  Ohio. 

October  passed  by.  On  the  3d  of  November,  Gen 
eral  Jackson,  in  his  character  of  business  man,  received 
from  Burr  some  important  orders  :  one  for  the  building, 
on  Stone's  River,  at  Clover  Bottom,  of  five  large  boats, 
such  as  were  then  used  for  descending  the  Western  rivers, 
and  another  for  the  gradual  purchase  of  a  large  quantity 
of  provisions  for  transportation  in  those  boats.  A  sum 
of  money,  in  Kentucky  bank-notes,  amounting  to  three 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  accompanied  the  orders. 
General  Jackson,  nothing  doubting,  and  never  reluctant 
to  do  business,  took  Burr's  letter  of  directions  and  the 
money  to  his  partner,  John  Coffee,  and  requested  him  to 
contract  at  once  for  the  boats  and  prepare  for  the  pur 
chase  of  the  provisions.  Coffee  proceeded  forthwith  to 
transact  the  business.  I  notice,  also,  that  Patton  Ander 
son,  one  of  Jackson's  special  intimates,  was  all  activity 
in  raising  a  company  of  young  men  to  accompany  Burr 
down  the  river.  I  observe,  too,  that  Anderson's  ex 
penses  were  paid  out  of  the  money  sent  by  Burr  to  Jack 
son  ;  at  least,  in  the  account  rendered  to  Burr  by  Jackson 
and  Coffee  at  the  final  settlement  there  is  an  item  of 
seven  hundred  dollars  cash  paid  to  Anderson.  Anderson 
succeeded  in  getting  seventy-five  young  men  to  enlist  in 
his  company. 

It  was  not  until  the  icth  of  November,  a  week  after 
the  receipt  of  Burr's  orders  and  money,  that  General 
Jackson,  according  to  his  own  account,  began  to  think 


AT   HOME. 


47 


there  might  be  some  truth  in  the  reports  which  attrib 
uted  to  Burr  unlawful  designs — reports  which  he  had 
previously  regarded  only  as  new  evidences  of  the  malice 
of  Burr's  political  enemies  and  his  own. 

But  about  the  date  mentioned,  while  General  Jack 
son  and  his  partners  were  full  of  Burr's  business,  a 
friend  of  Jackson's  visited  the  Hermitage,  who  succeeded 
in  convincing  him  that  some  gigantic  scheme  of  iniquity 
was  on  foot  in  the  United  States — a  conspiracy  for  the 
dismemberment  of  the  Union — and  that  it  was  possible, 
nay,  almost  probable,  that  Colonel  Burr's  extensive 
preparations  of  boats,  provisions,  and  men  had  some 
connection  with  this  nefarious  plan.  The  President's 
proclamation,  denouncing  Burr,  soon  followed. 

It  fell  to  the  lot  of  General  Jackson,  as  commanding 
officer  of  militia,  to  take  the  lead  in  the  measures  de 
signed  to  procure  the  arrest  of  Burr  and  his  confeder 
ates.  The  general  made  great  exertions  to  accomplish 
this  object,  but  Burr  had  gone  beyond  pursuit.  It  was 
widely  believed  at  the  time  that  General  Jackson  was 
involved  in  the  unlawful  part  of  Burr's  schemes,  but 
there  was  not  the  slightest  ground  for  such  a  belief,  and 
nothing  can  be  more  complete  than  the  chain  of  testi 
mony  that  establishes  his  innocence.  A  few  months 
later  we  find  him  at  Richmond,  whither  he  had  been 
summoned  as  a  witness  in  the  trial  of  Burr.  There  he 
harangued  the  crowd  in  the  Capitol  Square,  defending 
Burr,  and  angrily  denouncing  Jefferson  as  a  persecutor. 
He  made  himself  so  conspicuous  as  Burr's  champion  at 
Richmond,  that  Mr.  Madison,  the  Secretary  of  State, 
took  offense  at  it,  and  remembered  it  to  Jackson's  dis 
advantage  five  years  later,  when  he  was  President  of  the 
United  States,  with  a  war  on  his  hands.  For  the  same 
reason,  I  presume,  it  was  that  Jackson  was  not  called 
upon  to  give  testimony  upon  the  trial.  Burr,  it  seems, 


48  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

was  equally  satisfied  with  Jackson.  Blennerhasset,  in 
that  part  of  his  diary  which  records  his  prison  intervi-ews 
with  Burr,  says :  "  We  passed  to  the  topics  of  our  late 
adventures  on  the  Mississippi,  in  which  Burr  said  little, 
but  declared  he  did  not  know  of  any  reason  to  blame 
General  Jackson,  of  Tennessee,  for  anything  he  had  done 
or  omitted.  But  he  declares  he  will  not  lose  a  day  after 
the  favorable  issue  at  the  Capitol  (his  acquittal) — of 
which  he  has  no  doubt — to  direct  his  entire  attention  to 
setting  up  his  projects  (which  have  only  been  suspended) 
on  a  better  model,  '  in  which  work,'  he  says,  *  he  has 
even  here  made  some  progress.'  "  Jackson,  on  his  part, 
went  all  lengths  in  defense  of  Burr ;  nor  was  it  possible 
for  him  to  support  any  man  in  any  other  way.  Toward 
Wilkinson,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  betrayer  of  Burr, 
his  anger  burned  with  such  fury,  that  if  the  two  men  had 
met  in  a  place  convenient  the  meeting  could  hardly 
have  had  any  other  result  than  a — "  difficulty." 

About  the  year  1809  it  chanced  that  twins  were  born 
to  one  of  Mrs.  Jackson's  brothers,  Savern  Donelson. 
The  mother,  not  in  perfect  health,  was  scarcely  able  to 
sustain  both  these  newcomers.  Mrs.  Jackson,  partly  to 
relieve  her  sister  and  partly  with  the  wish  to  provide  a 
son  and  heir  for  her  husband,  took  one  of  the  infants, 
when  it  was  but  a  few  days  old,  home  to  the  Hermitage. 
The  general  soon  became  extremely  fond  of  the  boy, 
gave  him  his  own  name,  adopted  him,  and  treated  him 
thenceforth,  to  the  last  hour  of  his  life,  not  as  a  son 
merely  but  as  an  only  son.  This  boy  was  the  late 
Andrew  Jackson,  inheritor  of  the  general's  estate  and 
name,  master  of  the  Hermitage  until  it  became  the 
property  of  the  State  of  Tennessee.  A  few  years  later 
another  little  nephew  of  Mrs.  Jackson's,  the  well-known 
Andrew  Jackson  Donelson,  became  an  inmate  of  the 
Hermitage,  and  was  educated  by  General  Jackson. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

IN    THE    FIELD. 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  War  of  i&i2  there  was  not  a 
militia  general  in  the  Western  country  less  likely  to  re 
ceive  a  commission  from  the  General  Government  than 
Andrew  Jackson.  There  were  unpleasant  traditions  and 
recollections  connected  with  his  name  in  Mr.  Madison's 
Cabinet,  as  we  know. 

There  were  those,  however,  who  were  strongly  con 
vinced  that  General  Jackson  was  the  very  man,  of  all 
who  lived  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  to  be  intrusted 
with  its  defense.  Aaron  Burr  thought  so  for  one.  He 
had  just  returned  to  New  York,  after  his  four  years' 
exile,  when  the  war  began.  "  I  know,"  said  Colonel 
Burr,  "  that  my  word  is  not  worth  much  with  Madison  ; 
but  you  may  tell  him  from  me  that  there  is  an  unknown 
man  in  the  West,  named  Andrew  Jackson,  who  will  do 
credit  to  a  commission  in  the  army  if  conferred  on  him." 
This  remarkable  prediction  of  what  was  soon  verified, 
and  proof  of  Burr's  knowledge  of  the  then  obscure  indi 
vidual  he  recommended  to  notice,  occurred  before  Gen 
eral  Jackson  had  probably  ever  heard  a  volley  of  mus 
ket  balls,  or  performed  any  part  to  indicate  his  future 
military  distinction. 

It  was  General  Jackson's  promptitude  in  tendering 
his  services  and  the  services  of  his  division,  and  that 
alone,  which  softened  the  repugnance  of  the  President 
and  his  Cabinet.  The  war  was  declared  on  the  i2th  of 


50  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

June.  Such  news  is  not  carried,  but  flies,  and  so  may 
have  reached  Nashville  by  the  2oth.  On  the  25th,  Gen 
eral  Jackson  offered  to  the  President,  through  Governor 
Blount,  his  own  services  and  those  of  twenty-five  hun 
dred  volunteers  of  his  division.  A  response  to  the  dec 
laration  of  war  so  timely  and  practical  could  not  but 
have  been  extremely  gratifying  to  an  administration 
(never  too  confident  in  itself)  that  was  then  entering 
upon  a  contest  to  which  a  powerful  minority  was  op 
posed,  and  with  a  presidential  election  only  four  months 
distant.  The  reply  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  July 
nth,  was  as  cordial  as  a  communication  of  the  kind 
could  be.  The  President,  he  said,  had  received  the  ten 
der  of  service  by  General  Jackson  and  the  volunteers 
under  his  command  "  with  peculiar  satisfaction."  "  In 
accepting  their  services,"  added  the  Secretary,  "  the 
President  can  not  withhold  an  expression  of  his  admira 
tion  of  the  zeal  and  ardor  by  which  they  are  animated." 
Governor  Blount  was  evidently  more  than  satisfied  with 
the  result  of  the  offer;  he  publicly  thanked  General 
Jackson  and  the  volunteers  for  the  honor  they  had  done 
the  State  of  Tennessee  by  making  it. 

Thus  we  find  General  Jackson's  services  accepted  by 
the  President  before  hostilities  could  have  seriously  be 
gun.  The  summer  passed,  however,  and  the  autumn 
came,  and  still  he  was  at  home  upon  his  farm. 

After  Hull's  failure  in  Canada,  fears  were  entertained 
that  the  British  would  direct  their  released  forces  against 
the  ports  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  particularly  New  Or 
leans,  where  General  James  Wilkinson  still  commanded. 
On  October  2ist  the  Governor  of  Tennessee  was  re 
quested  to  dispatch  fifteen  hundred  of  the  Tennessee 
troops  to  the  re-enforcement  of  General  Wilkinson. 
On  November  ist  Governor  Blount  issued  the  requisite 
orders  to  General  Jackson,  who  entered  at  once  upon 


IN   THE   FIELD.  .5! 

the  task  of  preparing  for  the  descent  of  the  river  with 
his  volunteers. 

The  loth  of  December  was  the  day  appointed  for 
the  troops  to  rendezvous  at  Nashville.  The  climate  of 
Tennessee,  generally  so  pleasant,  is  liable  to  brief  periods 
of  severe  cold.  Twice  within  the  memory  of  living  per 
sons  the  Cumberland  has  been  frozen  over  at  Nashville, 
and  as  often  snow  has  fallen  there  to  the  depth  of  a 
foot.  It  so  chanced  that  the  day  named  for  the  assem 
bling  of  the  troops  was  the  coldest  that  had  been  known 
at  Nashville  for  many  years,  and  there  was  deep  snow 
on  the  ground.  Such  was  the  enthusiasm,  however,  of 
the  volunteers,  that  more  than  two  thousand  presented 
themselves  on  the  appointed  day.  The  general  was  no 
less  puzzled  than  pleased  by  this  alacrity.  Nashville 
was  still  little  more  than  a  large  village,  not  capable  of 
affording  the  merest  shelter  to  such  a  concourse  of  sol 
diers —  who,  in  any  weather  not  extraordinary,  would 
have  disdained  a  roof.  There  was  no  resource  for  the 
mass  of  the  troops  but  to  camp  out.  Fortunately,  the 
quartermaster,  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  had  provided  a 
thousand  cords  of  wood  for  the  use  of  the  men — a  quan 
tity  that  was  supposed  to  be  sufficient  to  last  till  they 
embarked.  Every  stick  of  the  wood  was  burned  the 
first  night  in  keeping  the  men  from  freezing.  From 
dark  until  nearly  daylight  the  general  and  the  quarter 
master  were  out  among  the  troops,  employed  in  provid 
ing  for  this  unexpected  and  perilous  exigency — seeing 
that  drunken  men  were  brought  within  reach  of  the  fire, 
and  that  no  drowsy  sentinel  slept  the  sleep  of  death. 

The  extreme  cold  soon  passed  away,  however,  and 
the  organization  of  the  troops  proceeded.  In  a  few  days 
the  little  army  was  in  readiness :  one  regiment  of  cav 
alry,  commanded  by  Colonel  John  Coffee,  six  hundred 
and  seventy  in  number  ;  two  regiments  of  infantry,  four- 


52  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

teen  hundred  men  in  all,  one  regiment  commanded  by 
Colonel  William  Hall,  the  other  by  Colonel  Thomas  H. 
Benton.  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  the  general's  neighbor 
and  friend,  was  the  quartermaster.  William  Carroll,  a 
young  man  from  Pennsylvania,  a  new  favorite  of  the 
general's,  was  the  brigade  inspector.  The  general's  aide 
and  secretary  was  John  Reid,  long  his  companion  in  the 
field,  afterward  his  biographer.  The  troops  were  of  the 
very  best  material  the  State  afforded — planters,  business 
men,  their  sons  and  grandsons — a  large  proportion  of 
them  descended  from  Revolutionary  soldiers  who  had 
settled  in  great  numbers  in  the  beautiful  valley  of  the 
Cumberland.  John  Coffee  was  a  host  in  himself — a 
plain,  brave,  modest,  stalwart  man,  devoted  to  his  chief, 
to  Tennessee,  and  to  the  Union.  He  had  been  recently 
married  to  Polly  Donelson,  the  daughter  of  Captain 
John  Donelson,  who  had  given  them  the  farm  on  which 
they  lived. 

On  the  yth  of  January  all  was  ready.  The  infantry 
embarked,  and  the  flotilla  dropped  down  the  river.  Colo 
nel  Coffee  and  the  mounted  men  marched  across  the 
country,  and  were  to  rejoin  the  general  at  Natchez.  "  I 
have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you,"  wrote  Jackson  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  just  before  leaving  home,  "  that  I  am 
now  at  the  head  of  2,070  volunteers,  the  choicest  of  our 
citizens,  who  go  at  the  call  of  their  country  to  execute 
the  will  of  the  Government,  who  have  no  constitutional 
scruples,  and,  if  the  Government  orders,  will  rejoice  at 
the  opportunity  of  placing  the  American  eagle  on  the 
ramparts  of  Mobile,  Pensacola,  and  Fort  St.  Augustine, 
effectually  banishing  from  the  Southern  coasts  all  British 
influence." 

Down  the  Cumberland  to  the  Ohio  ;  down  the  Ohio 
to  the  Mississippi ;  down  the  Mississippi  toward  New 
Orleans  ;  stopping  here  and  there  for  supplies  ;  delayed 


IN   THE   FIELD. 


53 


for  days  at  a  time  by  the  ice  in  the  swift  Ohio ;  ground 
ing  a  boat  now  and  then ;  losing  one  altogether — the 
fleet  pursued  its  course,  crunching  through  the  floating 
masses,  but  making  fair  progress,  for  the  space  of  thirty- 
nine  days. 

The  weather  was  often  very  cold  and  tempestuous, 
and  the  frail  boats  afforded  only  an  imperfect  shelter ; 
but  all  the  little  army,  from  the  general  to  the  privates, 
were  in  the  highest  spirits,  and  burned  with  the  desire 
to  do  their  part  in  restoring  the  diminished  prestige  of 
the  American  arms ;  to  atone  for  the  shocking  failures 
of  the  North  by  making  new  conquests  at  the  South. 
On  the  i5th  of  February,  at  dawn  of  day,  they  had  left 
a  thousand  miles  of  winding  stream  behind  them,  and 
saw  before  them  the  little  town  of  Natchez.  The  fleet 
came  to.  The  men  were  rejoiced  to  hear  that  Colonel 
Coffee  and  his  mounted  regiment  had  already  arrived  in 
the  vicinity. 

Here  General  Jackson  received  a  dispatch  from  Gen 
eral  Wilkinson  requesting  him  to  halt  at  Natchez,  as 
neither  quarters  nor  provisions  were  ready  for  them  at 
New  Orleans,  nor  had  an  enemy  yet  made  his  appear 
ance  in  the  Southern  waters.  Wilkinson  added,  that  he 
had  received  no  orders  respecting  the  Tennesseeans, 
knew  not  their  destination,  and  should  not  think  of 
yielding  his  command  "  until  regularly  relieved  by  su 
perior  authority."  Jackson  assented  to  the  policy  of  re 
maining  at  Natchez  for  further  instructions;  but  with 
regard  to  General  Wilkinson's  uneasiness  on  the  ques 
tion  of  rank  he  said,  in  his  reply,  "J  have  marched  with 
the  true  spirit  of  a  soldier,  to  serve  my  country  at  any 
and  every  point  where  service  can  be  rendered,"  and 
"  the  detachment  under  my  command  shall  be  kept  in 
complete  readiness  to  move  to  any  point  at  which  an 
enemy  may  appear,  at  the  shortest  notice."  So,  at 
5 


54  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Natchez,  the  troops  disembarked,  and,  encamping  in  a 
pleasant  and  salubrious  place  a  few  miles  from  the 
town,  passed  their  days  in  learning  the  duties  of  the 
soldier. 

The  month  of  February  passed  away  and  still  the 
army  was  in  camp,  employed  in  nothing  more  serious 
than  the  daily  drill.  No  one  knew  when  they  were  to 
move,  where  they  were  to  go,  nor  what  they  were  to  do. 
The  commanding  general  was  not  a  little  impatient,  and 
even  the  more  placid  Colonel  Coffee  longed  to  be  in 
action. 

At  length,  on  a  Sunday  morning  toward  the  end  of 
March,  an  express  from  Washington  reached  the  camp, 
and  a  letter  from  the  War  Department  was  placed  in  the 
general's  hands.  We  can  imagine  the  intensity  of  feel 
ing  with  which  he  tore  it  open  and  gathered  its  purport, 
and  the  fever  of  excitement  which  the  news  of  its  arrival 
kindled  throughout  the  camp.  The  communication  was 
signed  "  J.  Armstrong."  Eustis,  then,  was  out  of  office. 
Yes,  he  left  the  department  February  4th,  and  this  let 
ter  was  written  by  the  new  Secretary  two  days  after. 
But  its  contents  ?  Was  it  the  perusal  of  this  astounding 
letter  that  caused  the  general's  hair  to  stand  on  end,  and 
remain  forever  after  erect  and  bristling,  unlike  the  quills 
upon  the  fretful  porcupine  ?  Fancy,  if  you  can,  the  de 
meanor,  attitude,  countenance,  of  this  fiery  and  gener 
ous  soldier,  as  he  read  and  re-read,  with  ever-growing 
wonder  and  wrath,  the  following  epistle : 

"  SIR  :  The  causes  of  embodying  and  marching  to 
New  Orleans  the  corps  under  your  command  having 
ceased  to  exist,  you  will,  on  the  receipt  of  this  letter, 
consider  it  as  dismissed  from  public  service,  and  take 
measures  to  have  delivered  over  to  Major-General  Wil 
kinson  all  the  articles  of  public  property  which  may 


IN   THE   FIELD. 


55 


have  been  put  into  its  possession.  You  will  accept  for 
yourself  and  the  corps  the  thanks  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States." 

Dismissed  without  pay,  without  means  of  transport, 
without  provision  for  the  sick  ?  How  could  he  dismiss 
men  so  far  from  home,  to  whom,  on  receiving  them 
from  their  parents,  he  had  promised  to  be  a  father,  and 
either  to  restore  them  in  honor  to  their  arms,  or  give 
them  a  soldier's  burial  ? 

His  resolution  was  taken  on  the  instant  never  to  dis 
band  his  troops  till  he  had  led  them  back  to  the  borders 
of  their  own  State !  The  very  day  on  which  the  order 
arrived  the  general  issued  the  requisite  directions  for 
the  preparation  of  wagons,  provisions,  and  ammunition. 
On  the  next  day  he  dispatched  letters,  indignant  and 
explanatory,  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  to  Governor 
Blount,  to  the  President,  and  to  General  Wilkinson.  He 
attributed  the  strange  conduct  of  the  Government  to 
every  cause  but  the  right  one — its  own  inexperience,  and 
the  difficulty  of  directing  operations  at  places  so  remote 
from  the  seat  of  Government. 

At  the  last  moment  came  the  orders  of  the  Govern 
ment  (which  ought  to  have  accompanied  the  order  to 
disband)  directing  the  force  under  General  Jackson  to 
be  paid  off,  and  allowed  pay  and  rations  for  the  journey 
home.  It  was  too  late.  The  general  was  resolved, 
whatever  might  betide,  to  conduct  the  men  back  to  their 
homes,  in  person,  as  an  organized  body.  "  I  shall  com-- 
mence  the  line  of  march,"  he  wrote  to  Wilkinson,  "  on 
Thursday,  the  25th.  Should  the  contractor  not  feel 
himself  justified  in  sending  on  provisions  for  my  in 
fantry,  or  the  quartermaster  wagons  for  the  transporta 
tion  of  my  sick,  I  shall  dismount  the  cavalry,  carry  them 
on,  and  provide  the  means  for  their  support  out  of  my 


ij6  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

private  funds.  If  that  should  fail,  I  thank  my  God  we 
have  plenty  of  horses  to  feed  my  troops  to  the  Tennes 
see,  where  I  know  my  country  will  meet  me  with  ample 
supplies.  These  brave  men,  at  the  call  of  their  country, 
voluntarily  rallied  round  its  insulted  standard.  They 
followed  me  to  the  field.  I  shall  carefully  march  them 
back  to  their  homes.  It  is  for  the  agents  of  the  Govern 
ment  to  account  to  the  State  of  Tennessee  and  the  whole 
world  for  their  singular  and  unusual  conduct  to  this  de 
tachment." 

This  resolve  of  his  to  disobey  his  Government  for 
their  sakes,  and  the  manner  in  which  he  executed  that  re 
solve,  raised  his  popularity  to  the  highest  point.  When 
the  little  army  set  out  from  Natchez  for  a  march  of  five 
hundred  miles  through  the  wilderness,  there  were  a  hun 
dred  and  fifty  men  on  the  sick  list,  of  whom  fifty-six 
could  not  raise  their  heads  from  the  pillow.  There  were 
but  eleven  wagons  for  the  conveyance  of  these.  The 
rest  of  the  sick  were  mounted  on  the  horses  of  the  offi 
cers.  The  general  had  three  excellent  horses,  and  gave 
them  all  up  to  the  sick  men,  himself  trudging  along  on 
foot  with  the  brisk  pace  that  was  usual  with  him.  Day 
after  day  he  tramped  gayly  along  the  miry  forest  roads, 
never  tired,  and  always  ready  with  a  cheery  word  for 
the  others.  They  marched  with  extraordinary  speed, 
averaging  eighteen  miles  a  day,  and  performing  the 
whole  journey  in  less  than  a  month;  and  yet  the  sick 
men  rapidly  recovered  under  the  reviving  influences  of 
a  homeward  march.  "  Where  am  I  ?  "  asked  one  young 
fellow  who  had  been  lifted  to  his  place  in  a  wagon  when 
insensible  and  apparently  dying.  "  On  your  way  home  !  " 
cried  the  general,  merrily;  and  the  young  soldier  began 
to  improve  from  that  hour,  and  reached  home  in  good 
health. 

On  approaching  the  borders  of  the  State  the  general 


IN   THE   FIELD. 


57 


again  offered  his  services  to  the  Government  to  aid  in, 
or  conduct,  a  new  invasion  of  Canada.  His  force,  he 
said,  could  be  increased  if  necessary,  and  he  had  a  few 
standards  wearing  the  American  eagle  that  he  should  be 
happy  to  place  upon  the  enemy's  ramparts.  But  the  de 
sired  response  came  not ;  and  so,  on  the  22d  of  May,  the 
last  of  his  army  was  drawn  up  on  the  public  square  of 
Nashville  waiting  only  for  the  word  of  command  to  dis 
perse  to  their  homes. 

The  troops  were  dismissed,  exulting  in  their  com 
mander,  and  spreading  wide  the  fame  of  his  gallant  and 
graceful  conduct.  "  Long  will  their  general  live  in  the 
memory  of  the  volunteers  of  West  Tennessee,"  said  the 
Nashville  Whig,  a  day  or  two  after  the  troops  were  dis 
banded,  "  for  his  benevolent,  humane,  and  fatherly  treat 
ment  of  his  soldiers.  If  gratitude  and  love  can  reward 
him,  General  Jackson  has  them.  It  affords  us  pleasure 
to  say  that  we  believe  there  is  not  a  man  belonging  to 
the  detachment  but  what  loves  him.  His  fellow-citizens 
at  home  are  not  less  pleased  with  his  conduct.  We 
fondly  hope  his  merited  worth  will  not  be  overlooked 
by  the  Government." 

These  events  were  not  regarded  at  Washington  in 
the  light  they  were  at  Nashville.  The  "  Government  " 
came  very  near  making  up  its  mind  to  let  the  general 
bear  the  responsibilities  which  he  had  incurred.  Colonel 
Benton  says :  "  We  all  returned  ;  were  discharged ;  dis 
persed  among  our  homes,  and  the  fine  chance  on  which 
we  had  so  much  counted  was  all  gone.  And  now  came 
a  blow  upon  Jackson  himself— the  fruit  of  the  moneyed 
responsibility  which  he  had  assumed.  His  transporta 
tion  drafts  were  all  protested — returned  upon  him  for 
payment,  which  was  impossible,  and  directions  to  bring 
suit.  This  was  the  month  of  May.  I  was  coming  on  to 
Washington  on  my  own  account,  and  cordially  took 


58  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

charge  of  Jackson's  case.  Suits  were  delayed  until  the 
result  of  his  application  of  relief  could  be  heard.  I  ar 
rived  at  this  city.  Congress  was  in  session — the  extra 
session  of  the  spring  and  summer  of  1813.  I  applied  to 
the  members  of  Congress  from  Tennessee ;  they  could 
do  nothing.  I  applied  to  the  Secretary  of  War  ;  he  did 
nothing. 

"  Weeks  had  passed  away,  and  the  time  for  delay  was 
expiring  at  Nashville.  Ruin  seemed  to  be  hovering  over 
the  head  of  Jackson,  and  I  felt  the  necessity  of  some 
decisive  movement.  I  was  young  then,  and  had  some 
material  in  me — perhaps  some  boldness,  and  the  occa 
sion  brought  it  out.  I  resolved  to  take  a  step,  charac 
terized  in  the  letter  which  I  wrote  to  the  general  as  'an 
appeal  from  the  justice  to  the  fears  of  the  Administration' 
I  remember  the  words,  though  I  have  never  seen  the  let 
ter  since.  I  drew  up  a  memoir,  addressed  to  the  Secretary 
of  War,  representing  to  him  that  these  volunteers  were 
drawn  from  the  bosoms  of  almost  every  substantial  family 
in  Tennessee ;  that  the  whole  State  stood  by  Jackson  in 
bringing  them  home ;  and  that  the  State  would  be  lost 
to  the  Administration  if  he  was  left  to  suffer.  It  was 
upon  this  last  argument  that  I  relied — all  those  founded 
on  justice  having  failed. 

"  It  was  on  a  Saturday  morning,  June  i2th,  that  I 
carried  this  memoir  to  the  War  Office  and  delivered  it. 
Monday  morning  I  came  back  early  to  learn  the  result 
of  my  argument.  The  Secretary  was  not  yet  in.  I  spoke 
to  the  chief  clerk  (who  was  afterward  Adjutant-General 
Parker),  and  inquired  if  the  Secretary  had  left  any  an 
swer  for  me  before  he  left  the  office  on  Saturday.  He 
said  No,  but  that  he  had  put  the  memoir  in  his  side- 
pocket — the  breast-pocket — and  carried  it  home  with 
him,  saying  he  would  take  it  for  his  Sunday's  considera 
tion.  That  encouraged  me — gave  a  gleam  of  hope  and 


IN   THE   FIELD. 


59 


a  feeling  of  satisfaction.  I  thought  it  a  good  subject 
for  his  Sunday's  meditation.  Presently  he  arrived.  I 
stepped  in  before  anybody  to  his  office. 

"  He  told  me  quickly  and  kindly  that  there  was 
much  reason  in  what  I  had  said,  but  that  there  was  no 
way  for  him  to  do  it ;  that  Congress  would  have  to  give 
the  relief.  I  answered  him  that  I  thought  there  was  a 
way  for  him  to  do  it :  it  was,  to  give  an  order  to  Gen 
eral  Wilkinson,  Quartermaster-General  in  the  Southern 
Department,  to  pay  for  so  much  transportation  as  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  command  would  have  been  entitled  to  if 
it  had  returned  under  regular  orders.  Upon  the  instant 
he  took  up  a  pen,  wrote  down  the  very  words  I  had 
spoken,  directed  a  clerk  to  put  them  into  form,  and  the 
work  was  done.  The  order  went  off  immediately,  and 
Jackson  was  relieved  from  imminent  impending  ruin 
and  Tennessee  remained  firm  to  the  Administration." 

Meanwhile,  General  Jackson  was  drawn,  much  against 
his  will,  into  a  "  difficulty  "  with  Jesse  Benton,  a  broth 
er  of  Colonel  Thomas  H.  Benton,  who  had  just  ren 
dered  him  so  important  a  service.  He  had  even  served 
as  second  in  a  duel  between  Colonel  Carroll  and  Jesse 
Benton,  in  which  Benton  had  been  wounded.  It  hap 
pened,  too,  that  Colonel  Benton  heard  this  strange  news 
at  the  most  unfortunate  moment.  He  had  completed 
his  business  at  Washington,  had  sent  on  to  Tennessee 
the  news  of  his  great  success,  and  was  about  to  return 
home,  when  he  heard  of  this  duel,  and  heard,  too,  that 
General  Jackson  had  gone  to  the  field  not  as  his 
brother's  friend  but  as  the  second  of  his  brother's  an 
tagonist  !  Soon  came  wild  letters  from  Jesse,  so  narrat 
ing  the  affair  as  to  place  the  conduct  of  General  Jackson 
in  the  worst  possible  light.  Officious  friends  of  the  Ben- 
tons,  foes  to  Jackson  and  to  Carroll,  wrote  to  Colonel 
Benton  in  a  similar  strain,  adding  fuel  to  the  fire  of  his 


60  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

indignation.  Benton  wrote  to  Jackson  denouncing  his 
conduct  in  offensive  terms.  Jackson  replied,  in  effect, 
that  before  addressing  him  in  that  manner  Colonel  Ben- 
ton  should  have  inquired  of  him  what  his  conduct  really 
had  been— not  listened  to  the  tales  of  designing  and  in 
terested  parties.  Benton  wrote  still  more  angrily.  He 
said  that  General  Jackson  had  conducted  the  duel  in  a 
11  savage,  unequal,  unfair,  and  base  manner."  On  his 
way  home  through  Tennessee,  especially  at  Knoxville, 
he  inveighed  bitterly  and  loudly,  in  public  places,  against 
General  Jackson,  using  language  such  as  angry  men  did 
use  in  the  Western  country  fifty  years  ago. 

Jackson  had  liked  Thomas  Benton,  and  remembered 
with  gratitude  his  parents,  particularly  his  mother,  who 
had  been  gracious  and  good  to  him  when  he  was  a  "  raw 
lad "  in  North  Carolina.  Jackson  was  therefore  sin 
cerely  unwilling  to  break  with  him,  and  manifested  a 
degree  of  forbearance  which  it  is  a  pity  he  could  not 
have  maintained  to  the  end.  He  took  fire  at  last,  threw 
old  friendship  to  the  winds,  and  swore  by  the  Eternal 
that  he  would  horsewhip  Tom  Benton  the  first  time  he 
met  him. 

On  reaching  Nashville  Colonel  Benton  and  his 
brother  Jesse  did  not  go  to  their  accustomed  inn,  but 
stopped  at  the  City  Hotel,  to  avoid  General  Jackson, 
unless  he  chose  to  go  out  of  his  way  to  seek  them. 
This  was  on  the  3d  of  September.  In  the  evening  of  the 
same  day  it  came  to  pass  that  General  Jackson  and 
Colonel  Coffee  rode  into  town,  and  put  up  their  horses 
as  usual,  at  the  Nashville  Inn. 

The  next  morning,  about  nine,  Colonel  Coffee  pro 
posed  to  General  Jackson  that  they  should  stroll  over 
to  the  post-office.  They  started.  The  general  carried 
with  him,  as  he  ordinarily  did,  his  riding-whip.  He  also 
wore  a  smallsword,  as  all  gentlemen  once  did,  and  as 


IN   THE   FIELD.  6Z 

official  persons  were  accustomed  to  do  in  Tennessee  as 
late  as  the  War  of  1812.  As  they  drew  near  they  ob 
served  that  Jesse  Benton  was  standing  before  the  hotel 
near  his  brother.  On  coming  up  to  where  Colonel  Ben- 
ton  stood,  General  Jackson  turned  suddenly  toward  him, 
with  his  whip  in  his  right  hand,  and,  stepping  up  to  him, 
said  : 

"Now,  you  d d  rascal,  I'm  going  to  punish  you. 

Defend  yourself!  " 

Benton  put  his  hand  into  his  breast-pocket  and 
seemed  to  be  fumbling  for  his  pistol.  As  quick  as  light 
ning  Jackson  drew  a  pistol  from  a  pocket  behind  him, 
and  presented  it  full  at  his  antagonist,  who  recoiled  a 
pace  or  two.  Jackson  advanced  upon  him.  Benton 
continued  to  step  slowly  backward,  Jackson  close  upon 
him,  with  a  pistol  at  his  heart,  until  they  had  reached 
the  back  door  of  the  hotel  and  were  in  the  act  of  turning 
down  the  back  piazza.  At  that  moment,  just  as  Jackson 
was  beginning  to  turn,  Jesse  Benton  entered  the  passage 
behind  the  belligerents,  and,  seeing  his  brother's  danger, 
raised  his  pistol  and  fired  at  Jackson.  The  pistol  was 
loaded  with  two  balls  and  a  large  slug.  The  slug  took 
effect  in  Jackson's  left  shoulder,  shattering  it  horribly. 
One  of  the  balls  struck  the  thick  part  of  his  left  arrn^ 
and  buried  itself  near  the  bone.  The  other  ball  splin 
tered  the  board  partition  at  his  side.  The  shock  of  the 
wounds  was  such  that  Jackson  fell  across  the  entry  and 
remained  prostrate,  bleeding  profusely. 

Coffee  had  remained  just  outside,  meanwhile.  Hear 
ing  the  report  of  the  pistol,  he  sprang  into  the  entry, 
and,  seeing  his  chief  prostrate  at  the  feet  of  Colonel 
Benton,  concluded  that  it  was  his  ball  that  had  laid  him 
low.  He  rushed  upon  Benton,  drew  his  pistol,  fired,  and 
missed.  Then  he  "  clubbed  "  his  pistol,  and  was  about 
to  strike,  when  Colonel  Benton,  in  stepping  backward, 


62  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

came  to  some  stairs  of  which  he  was  not  aware  and  fell 
headlong  to  the  bottom.  Coffee,  thinking  him  hors  de 
combat,  hastened  to  the  assistance  of  his  wounded  gen 
eral. 

Faint  from  the  loss  of  blood,  Jackson  was  conveyed 
to  a  room  in  the  Nashville  Inn,  his  wound  still  bleeding 
fearfully.  Before  the  bleeding  could  be  stopped,  two 
mattresses,  as  Mrs.  Jackson  used  to  say,  were  soaked 
through,  and  the  general  was  reduced  almost  to  the  last 
gasp.  All  the  doctors  in  Nashville  were  soon  in  at 
tendance,  all  but  one  of  whom,  and  he  a  young  man, 
recommended  the  amputation  of  the  shattered  arm. 
"  I'll  keep  my  arm,"  said  the  wounded  man,  and  he  kept 
it.  No  attempt  was  made  to  extract  the  ball,  and  it 
remained  in  the  arm  for  twenty  years.  The  ghastly 
wounds  in  the  shoulder  were  dressed,  in  the  simple 
manner  of  the  Indians  and  pioneers,  with  poultices  of 
slippery  elm  and  other  products  of  the  woods.  The 
patient  was  utterly  prostrated  with  the  loss  of  blood. 
It  was  two  or  three  weeks  before  he  could  leave  his  bed. 

After  the  retirement  of  the  general's  friends  the 
Bentons  remained  for  an  hour  or  more  upon  the  scene 
of  the  affray,  denouncing  Jackson  as  an  assassin,  and  a 
defeated  assassin.  They  defied  him  to  come  forth  and 
renew  the  strife.  Colonel  Benton  made  a  parade  of 
breaking  Jackson's  smallsword,  which  had  been  dropped 
in  the  struggle  and  left  on  the  floor  of  the  hotel.  He 
broke  it  in  the  public  square,  and  accompanied  the  act 
with  words  defiant  and  contemptuous,  uttered  in  the 
loudest  tones  of  his  thundering  voice.  The  general's 
friends,  all  anxiously  engaged  around  the  couch  of  their 
bleeding  chief,  disregarded  these  demonstrations  at  the 
time,  and  the  brothers  retired,  victorious  and  exulting. 

Shortly  after  the  affray  Colonel  Benton  went  to  his 
home  in  Franklin,  Tennessee,  beyond  the  reach  of 


IN   THE   FIELD/  63 

"  Jackson's  puppies."  He  was  appointed  lieutenant- 
colonel  in  the  regular  army,  left  Tennessee,  resigned  his 
commission  at  the  close  of  the  war,  emigrated  to  Mis 
souri,  and  never  again  met  General  Jackson  till  1823, 
when  both  were  members  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  Jesse  Benton,  I  may  add,  never  forgave  General 
Jackson,  nor  could  he  ever  excuse  his  brother  for  for 
giving  the  general.  Publications  against  Jackson  by 
the  angry  Jesse,  dated  as  late  as  1828,  may  be  seen  in 
old  collections  of  political  trash. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    MASSACRE    AT    FORT    MIMS. 

AUGUST  30,  1813,  was  the  date  of  this  most  terrible 
event.  The  place  was  a  fort,  or  stockade-of-refuge,  on 
the  shores  of  Lake  Tensaw,  in  the  southern  part  of  what 
is  now  the  State  of  Alabama. 

One  Samuel  Mims,  an  old  and  wealthy  inhabitant  of 
the  Indian  country,  had  inclosed  with  upright  logs  an 
acre  of  land,  in  the  middle  of  which  stood  his  house,  a 
spacious  one-story  building,  with  sheds  adjoining.  The 
inclosure,  pierced  with  five  hundred  portholes  three 
and  a  half  feet  from  the  ground,  was  entered  by  two 
heavy,  rude  gates,  one  on  the  eastern,  and  one  on  the 
western  side.  In  a  corner,  on  a  slight  elevation,  a 
blockhouse  was  begun  but  never  finished.  When  the 
country  became  thoroughly  alarmed  by  the  hostility  of 
the  Indians,  the  inhabitants  along  the  Alabama  River, 
few  in  number  and  without  means  of  defense,  had  left 
their  crops  standing  in  the  fields  and  their  houses  open 
to  the  plunderer,  and  had  rushed  to  the  blockhouses 
and  stockades,  of  which  there  were  twenty  in  a  line  of 
seventy  miles.  The  neighbors  of  Mr.  Mims  resorted  to 
his  inclosure,  each  family  hastening  to  construct  within 
it  a  rough  cabin  for  its  own  accommodation. 

As  soon  as  the  fort — for  fort  it  was  called — was  suffi 
ciently  prepared  for  their  reception,  Governor  Claiborne, 
of  New  Orleans,  dispatched  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  volunteers  to  assist  in  its  defense,  under  the  com- 


THE   MASSACRE   AT   FORT   MIMS.  65 

mand  of  Major  Daniel  Beasley.  Already,  from  the  neigh 
borhood,  seventy  militiamen  had  assembled  at  the  fort, 
besides  a  mob  of  friendly  Indians^and  one  hundred  and 
six  negro  slaves.  Upon  taking  the  command,  Major 
Beasley,  to  accommodate  the  multitude  which  thronged 
to  the  fort,  had  enlarged  it  by  making  a  new  line  of 
picketing  sixty  feet  beyond  the  eastern  end,  but  left 
the  old  line  of  stockades  standing,  thus  forming  two  in- 
closures. 

On  the  morning  of  the  fatal  day,  though  Major 
Beasley  had  spared  some  of  his  armed  men  .for  the  de 
fense  of  neighboring  stations,  Fort  Mims  contained  five 
hundred  and  fifty-three  souls — a  mass  of  human  beings 
crowded  together  in  a  flat,  swampy  region,  under  the 
broiling  sun  of  an  Alabama  August.  Of  these,  more 
than  one  hundred  were  white  women  and  children. 

Many  days  had  passed — long,  hot,  tedious  days — 
and  no  Indians  were  seen.  The  first  terror  abated. 
The  higher  officers,  it  seems,  had  scarcely  believed  at 
all  in  the  hostile  intentions  of  the  Creeks,  and  were 
inclined  to  make  light  of  the  general  consternation.  At 
least,  they  were  entirely  confident  in  their  ability  to 
defend  the  fort  against  any  force  that  the  Indians  could 
bring  against  it.  The  motley  inmates  gave  themselves 
up  to  fun  and  frolic.  A  rumor  would  occasionally  come 
in  with  alarming  news  of  Indian  movements,  and  for  a 
few  hours  the  old  caution  was  resumed,  and  the  men 
would  languidly  work  on  the  defenses.  But  still  the 
hourly  scouts  sent  out  by  the  commander  could  discover 
no  traces  of  an  enemy,  and  the  hot  days  and  nights  still 
wore  away  without  alarm. 

On  August  29th,  two  slaves,  who  had  been  sent  out  to 
watch  some  cattle  that  grazed  a  few  miles  from  the  fort, 
came  rushing  breathless  through  the  gate,  reporting  that 
they  had  seen  twenty-four  painted  warriors.  A  general 


66  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

alarm  ensued,  and  the  garrison  flew  to  their  stations.  A 
party  of  horse,  guided  by  the  negroes,  galloped  to  the 
spot,  but  could  neither  find  Indians  nor  discover  any  of 
the  usual  traces  of  their  presence.  Upon  their  return 
one  of  the  negroes  was  tied  up  and  severely  flogged  for 
alarming  the  garrison  by  what  Major  Beasley  supposed 
to  be  a  sheer  fabrication.  The  other  negro  would  also 
have  been  punished  but  for  the  interference  of  his  mas 
ter,  who  believed  his  tale;  at  which  interference  the 
major  was  so  much  displeased  that  he  ordered  the  gen 
tleman,  with  his  large  family,  to  leave  the  fort  on  the 
following  morning.  Never  did  such  a  fatal  infatuation 
possess  the  mind  of  a  man  intrusted  with  so  many  hu 
man  lives. 

The  3oth  of  August  arrived.  At  ten  in  the  morning 
the  commandant  was  sitting  in  his  room  writing  to 
Governor  Claiborne  a  letter  (which  still  exists)  to  the 
effect  that  he  need  not  concern  himself  in  the  least  re 
specting  the  safety  of  Fort  Mims,  as  there  was  no  doubt 
of  its  impregnability  against  any  Indian  force  whatever. 
Both  gates  were  wide  open.  Women  were  preparing 
dinner.  Children  were  playing  about  the  cabins.  Sol 
diers  were  sauntering,  sleeping,  playing  cards.  The 
owner  of  the  frightened  negro  had  now  consented  to  his 
punishment  rather  than  leave  the  fort,  and  the  poor  fel 
low  was  tied  up  expecting  soon  to  feel  the  lash.  His 
companion,  who  had  been  whipped  the  day  before,  was 
tending  cattle  at  the  same  place  where  again  he  saw, 
or  thought  he  saw,  painted  warriors ;  and,  fearing  to  be 
whipped  again  if  he  reported  the  news,  he  fled  to  the 
next  station  some  miles  distant. 

All  this  calm  and  quiet  morning,  from  before  day 
light  until  noon,  there  lay,  in  a  ravine  only  four  hundred 
yards  from  the  fort's  eastern  gate,  one  thousand  Creek 
warriors,  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  hideous  with  war-paint 


THE   MASSACRE   AT   FORT    MIMS.  67 

and  feathers.  Weathersford,  the  crafty  and  able  chief 
tain,  had  led  them  from  Pensacola,  where  the  British 
had  supplied  them  with  weapons  and  ammunition,  to 
this  well-chosen  spot,  where  they  crouched  and  waited 
through  the  long  slow  morning,  with  the  devilish  pa 
tience  with  which  savages  and  tigers  can  wait  for  their 
prey.  So  dead  was  the  silence  in  the  ravine  that  the 
birds  fluttered  and  sang  as  usual  in  the  branches  above 
the  dusky,  breathing  mass.  Five  prophets  with  black 
ened  faces,  with  medicine-bags  and  magic  rods,  lay 
among  them,  ready  at  the  signal  to  begin  their  incanta 
tions  and  stimulate  the  fury  of  the  warriors. 

At  noon  a  drum  in  the  fort  beat  to  dinner.  Officers 
and  men,  their  arms  laid  aside,  all  unsuspicious  of  dan 
ger,  were  gathering  to  the  meal  in  various  parts  of  the 
stockade.  That  dinner-drum  was  the  signal  which 
Weathersford  had  cunningly  chosen  for  the  attack.  At 
the  first  tap  the  silent  ravine  was  alive  with  Indians, 
who  leaped  up  and  ran  in  a  tumultuous  mass  toward 
the  eastern  gate  of  the  devoted  fort.  The  head  of  the 
throng  had  reached  a  field  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
across  that  lay  before  the  gate,  had  raised  a  hideous 
whoop,  and  were  streaming  across  the  field,  before  a 
sentinel  saw  or  heard  them.  Then  arose  the  terrible  cry, 
"Indians!  Indians!''  and  there  was  a  rush  of  women 
and  children  to  the  houses,  and  of  men  to  the  gates  and 
portholes.  Major  Beasley  was  one  of  the  first  at  the 
gate,  and  made  a  frantic  attempt  to  close  it;  but  sand 
had  washed  into  the  gateway,  and  ere  the  obstruction 
could  be  removed  the  savages  poured  in,  felled  the  com 
mander  to  the  earth  with  clubs  and  tomahawks,  and 
ran  over  his  bleeding  body  into  the  fort.  He  crawled 
behind  the  gate,  and  in  a  few  minutes  died,  exhorting 
his  men  with  his  last  breath  to  make  a  resolute  resist 
ance.  At  once  the  whole  of  that  part  of  the  fort  which 


68  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

had  been  lately  added,  and  which  was  separated  from 
the  main  inclosure  by  the  old  line  of  pickets,  was  filled 
with  Indians,  hooting,  howling,  dancing  among  the  dead 
bodies  of  many  of  the  best  officers  and  men  of  the  little 
garrison.  The  poor  negro,  tied  up  to  be  whipped  for 
doing  all  he  could  to  prevent  this  catastrophe,  was 
killed  as  he  stood  waiting  for  his  punishment. 

The  situation  was  at  once  simple  and  horrible.  Two 
inclosures  adjoining,  with  a  line  of  portholes  through 
the  log  partition — one  inclosure  full  of  men,  women, 
children,  friendly  Indians  and  negroes,  the  other  filled 
with  howling  savages,  mad  with  the  lust  of  slaughter; 
both  compartments  containing  sheds,  cabins,  and  other 
places  for  refuge  and  assault;  the  large  open  field  with 
out  the  eastern  gate  covered  with  what  seemed  a  count 
less  swarm  of  naked  fiends  hurrying  to  the  fort;  all 
avenues  of  escape  closed  by  Weathersford's  foresight 
and  vigilance ;  no  white  station  within  three  miles,  and 
no  adequate  help  within  a  day's  march;  the  comman 
dant  and  some  of  his  ablest  officers  trampled  under  the 
feet  of  the  savage  foe — such  was  the  posture  of  affairs  at 
Fort  Mims  a  few  minutes  after  noon  on  this  dreadful  day. 

The  garrison,  partly  recovering  their  first  panic, 
formed  along  the  line  of  porthole's  and  fired  some 
effective  volleys,  killing  with  the  first  discharge  the 
five  prophets  who  were  dancing,  grimacing,  and  howl 
ing  among  the  assailants  in  the  smaller  inclosure. 
These  men  had  given  out  that  they  were  invulnerable. 
American  bullets  were  to  split  upon  their  sacred  per 
sons  and  pass  off  harmless.  Their  fall  so  abated  the 
ardor  of  the  savages  that  their  fire  slackened,  and  some 
began  to  retreat  from  the  fort.  But  new  crowds  kept 
coming  up,  and  the  attack  was  soon  renewed  in  all  its 
first  fury. 

The  garrison,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  behaved  as 


THE   MASSACRE  AT   FORT    MIMS.  69 

men  should  do  in  circumstances  so  terrible  and  desper 
ate.  One  Captain  Bailey  took  the  command  after  the 
death  of  Major  Beasley,  and  infused  the  fire  of  his  own 
indomitable  spirit  into  the  hearts  of  the  whole  com 
pany,  adding  an  example  of  cool  valor  to  encouraging 
words.  The  garrison  maintained  a  ceaseless  and  de 
structive  fire  through  the  portholes  and  from  the 
houses.  It  happened  more  than  once  that,  at  a  si 
multaneous  discharge  through  a  porthole,  both  the 
Indian  without  and  the  white  man  within  were  killed. 
Even  the  boys  and  some  of  the  women  assisted  in  the 
defense ;  and  few  of  the  women  gave  themselves  up  to 
terror  while  there  remained  any  hope  of  preserving  the 
fort.  Some  of  the  old  men  broke  holes  in  the  roof  of 
the  large  house  and  did  good  execution  upon  the  sav 
ages  outside  of  the  stockade.  The  noise  was  terrific. 
All  the  Indians  who  could  not  get  at  the  portholes  to 
fight  seemed  to  have  passed  the  hours  of  this  horrible 
day  in  dancing  round  the  fort,  screaming,  hooting,  and 
taunting  the  inmates  with  their  coming  fate. 

Amid  scenes  like  these  three  hours  passed,  and  still 
the  larger  part  of  the  fort  remained  in  the  hands  of  the 
garrison,  though  many  a  gallant  soldier  had  fallen,  and 
the  rooms  of  the  large  house  were  filled  with  wounded 
men  and  ministering  women.  The  heroic  Bailey  still 
spoke  cheerily.  He  said  that  Indians  never  fought  long 
when  they  were  bravely  met ;  they  would  certainly 
abandon  the  assault  if  the  garrison  continued  to  resist. 
He  tried  to  induce  a  small  party  to  make  a  sortie,  fight 
their  way  to  the  next  station,  and  bring  a  force  to  attack 
the  enemy  in  the  rear.  Failing  in  this,  he  said  he  would 
go  himself,  and  began  to  climb  the  picketing,  but  was 
pulled  back  by  his  friends,  who  saw  the  madness  of  the 
attempt.  About  three  o'clock  the  Indians  seemed  to 
tire  of  the  long  contest.  The  fire  slackened,  the  howl- 


70  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

ings  subsided,  the  savages  began  to  carry  off  the  plun 
der  from  the  cabins  in  the  lesser  inclosure,  and  hope 
revived  in  many  a  despairing  heart.  But  Weathersford 
at  this  hour  rode  up  on  a  large  black  horse,  and,  meet 
ing  a  throng  of  the  retreating  plunderers,  upbraided 
them  in  an  animated  speech,  and  induced  them  to  return 
with  him  to  the  fort  and  complete  its  destruction. 

And  now  fire  was  added  to  the  horrors  of  the  scene ! 
By  burning  arrows  and  other  expedients  the  house  of 
Mr.  Mims  was  set  on  fire,  and  soon  the  whole  structure, 
with  its  extensive  outbuildings  and  sheds,  was  wrapped 
in  flames;  while  the  shrieks  of  the  women  and  children 
were  heard,  for  the  first  time,  above  the  dreadful  din 
and  whoop  of  the  battle.  One  after  another  the  smaller 
buildings  caught,  until  the  whole  inclosure  was  a  roar 
ing  sea  of  flame,  except  one  poor  corner,  where  some 
extra  picketing  formed  a  last  refuge  to  the  surviving 
victims.  Into  this  inclosure  hurried  a  crowd  of  women, 
children,  negroes,  old  men,  wounded  soldiers,  trampling 
one  another  to  death — all  in  the  last  agonies  of  mortal 
terror.  The  savages  were  soon  upon  them,  and  the 
work  of  slaughter — fierce,  unrelenting  slaughter — began. 
Children  were  seized  by  the  feet  and  their  brains  dashed 
out  against  the  pickets.  Women  were  cut  to  pieces. 
Men  were  tomahawked  and  scalped.  Some  poor  Span 
iards,  deserters  from  Pensacola,  were  kneeling  along  the 
pickets,  and  were  tomahawked  one  after  another  as 
they  knelt.  Weathersford,  who  was  not  a  savage,  but 
a  misguided  hero  and  patriot,  worthy  of  Tecumseh's 
friendship,  did  what  Tecumseh  would  have  done  if  he 
had  been  there :  he  tried  to  stop  this  horrid  carnage. 
But  the  Indians  were  delirious  and  frantic  with  the  love 
of  blood,  and  would  not  stay  their  murderous  hands  while 
one  of  that  mass  of  human  victims  continued  to  live. 

At  noon  that  day,  as  we  have  seen,  five  hundred  and 


THE   MASSACRE   AT    FORT    MIMS.  fi 

fifty-three  persons  were  inmates  of  Fort  Mims.  At  sun 
set,  four  hundred  mangled,  scalped  and  bloody  corpses 
were  heaped  and  strewed  within  its  wooden  walls.  Not 
one  white  woman,  not  one  white  child,  escaped.  Twelve 
of  the  garrison,  at  the  last  moment,  by  cutting  through 
two  of  the  pickets,  got  out  of  the  fort  and  fled  to  the 
swamp.  A  large  number  of  the  negroes  were  spared  by 
the  Indians  and  kept  for  slaves.  A  few  half-breeds 
were  made  prisoners.  Captain  Bailey,  severely  wounded, 
ran  to  the  swamp,  and  died  by  the  side  of  a  cypress 
stump.  A  negro  woman,  with  a  ball  in  her  breast, 
reached  a  canoe  on  Lake  Tensaw  and  paddled  fifteen 
miles  to  Fort  Stoddart,  and  bore  the  first  news  of  the 
massacre  to  Governor  Claiborne.  Most  of  the  men  who 
fled  from  the  slaughter  wandered  for  days  in  the  swamps 
and  forests,  and  only  reached  places  of  safety,  nearly 
starved,  after  many  a  hair-breadth  escape  from  the  In 
dians.  Some  of  them  were  living  forty  years  ago,  from 
whose  lips  Mr.  A.  J.  Pickett,  the  historian  of  Alabama, 
gathered  most  of  the  particulars  which  have  been  briefly 
related  here. 

The  garrison  sold  their  lives  as  dearly  as  they  could. 
It  is  thought  that  four  hundred  of  Weathersford's  band 
were  killed  and  wounded.  That  night  the  savages,  ex 
hausted  with  their  bloody  work,  appear  to  have  slept 
near  the  scene  of  the  massacre.  Next  day  they  returned 
to  bury  their  dead,  but,  fatigued  with  the  number,  gave 
it  up  and  left  many  exposed.  Ten  days  after,  Major 
Kennedy  reached  the  spot  with  a  detachment  of  troops 
to  bury  the  bodies  of  the  whites,  and  found  the  air  dark 
with  buzzards,  and  hundreds  of  dogs  gnawing  the  bodies. 
In  two  large  pits  the  troops,  shuddering  now  with  horror 
and  now  fierce  for  revenge,  succeeded  at  length  in  bury 
ing  the  remains  of  their  countrymen  and  countrywomen. 
Major  Kennedy  said  in  his  report :  "  Indians,  negroes, 


72  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

white  men,  women,  and  children,  lay  in  one  promiscuous 
ruin.  All  were  scalped,  and  the  females  of  every  age 
were  butchered  in  a  manner  which  neither  decency  nor 
language  will  permit  me  to  describe.  The  main  build 
ing  was  burned  to  ashes,  which  were  filled  with  bones. 
The  plains  and  woods  around  were  covered  with  dead 
bodies.  All  the  houses  were  consumed  by  fire  except 
the  blockhouse  and  a  part  of  the  pickets.  The  soldiers 
and  officers  with  one  voice  called  on  Divine  Providence 
to  revenge  the  death  of  our  murdered  friends." 

Such  was  the  massacre  at  Fort  Mims.  The  news 
flew  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.  From  Mobile  to  the 
borders  of  Tennessee,  from  the  vicinity  of  New  Orleans 
almost  to  the  coast  of  Georgia,  there  was  felt  to  be  no 
safety  for  the  white  man  except  in  fortified  posts;  nor 
certain  safety  even  in  them.  In  the  country  of  the  Ala 
bama  River  and  its  branches,  every  white  man,  woman, 
and  child,  every  friendly  half-breed  and  Indian,  hurried 
to  the  stockades  or  fled  in  wild  terror  toward  Mobile. 
"  Never  in  my  life,"  wrote  an  eyewitness,  "  did  I  see  a 
country  given  up  before  without  a  struggle.  Here  are 
the  finest  crops  my  eyes  ever  beheld  made  and  almost 
fit  to  be  housed,  with  immense  herds  of  cattle,  negroes, 
and  property,  abandoned  by  their  owners  almost  on  the 
first  alarm."  Within  the  stockades  diseases  raged,  and 
hundreds  of  families,  unable  to  get  within  those  inclos- 
ures,  lay  around  the  walls,  squalid,  panic-stricken,  sick, 
and  miserable.  Parties  of  Indians  roved  about  the 
country  rioting  in  plunder.  After  burning  the  houses 
and  laying  waste  the  plantations,  they  would  drive  the 
cattle  together  in  herds,  and  either  destroy  them  in  a 
mass  or  drive  them  off  for  their  future  use.  The  horses 
were  taken  to  facilitate  their  marauding,  and  their  camps 
were  filled  with  the  luxuries  of  the  planters'  houses. 
Governor  Claiborne,  a  generous  and  feeling  man,  was 


THE   MASSACRE   AT   FORT   MIMS.  73 

at  his  wits'  end.  From  every  quarter  came  the  most 
urgent  and  pathetic  demands  for  troops.  Not  a  man 
could  be  spared,  for  no  one  knew  where  next  the  exult 
ant  savages  would  endeavor  to  repeat  the  catastrophe 
of  Fort  Mims;  and  in  the  best-defended  forts  there 
were  five  non-combatants  to  one  soldier.  For  some 
weeks  of  the  autumn  of  1813  it  really  seemed  as  if  the 
white  settlers  of  Alabama,  including  those  of  Mobile 
itself,  were  on  the  point  of  being  exterminated. 

The  news  of  the  massacre  at  Fort  Mims  was  thirty- 
one  days  in  reaching  New  York.  It  is  a  proof  how  oc 
cupied  were  the  minds  of  the  people  in  the  Northern 
States  with  great  events,  that  the  dread  narrative  ap 
peared  in  the  New  York  papers  only  as  an  item  of  war 
news  of  comparatively  small  importance.  The  last  pro 
digious  acts  in  the  drama  of  Napoleon's  decline  and  fall 
were  watched  with  absorbing  interest.  The  news  of 
Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie  had  just  thrilled  the  nation 
with  delight  and  pride,  and  all  minds  were  still  eager 
for  every  new  particular.  Harrison's  victory  on  the 
Thames  over  Proctor  and  Tecumseh  soon  followed.  The 
lamentable  condition  of  the  Southern  country  was  there 
fore  little  felt  at  the  time  beyond  the  States  immediately 
concerned.  Perry  and  Harrison  were  the  heroes  of  the 
hour.  Their  return  from  the  scene  of  their  exploits  was 
a  continuous  triumphal /#*. 

In  a  room  at  Nashville,  a  thousand  miles  from  these 
splendid  scenes,  lay  a  gaunt,  yellow-visaged  man,  sick, 
defeated,  prostrate,  with  his  arm  bound  up  and  his 
shoulders  bandaged,  waiting  impatiently  for  his  wounds 
to  heal  and  his  strength  to  return.  Who  then  thought 
of  him  in  connection  with  victory  and  glory  ?  Who  sup 
posed  that  he,  of  all  men,  was  the  one  destined  to  cast 
into  the  shade  those  favorites  of  the  nation,  and  shine 
out  as  the  prime  hero  of  the  war? 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  CREEK  COUNTRY  INVADED. 

THERE  must  have  been  swift  express  riding  in  those 
early  days  of  September,  and  as  stealthy  as  swift  through 
the  Indian  country ;  for,  on  the  i8th  of  the  month,  nine 
teen  days  after  the  massacre,  we  find  the  people  of 
Nashville  assembled  in  town  meeting  to  deliberate  upon 
the  event,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Craighead  in  the  chair. 

The  news  of  the  massacre  produced  everywhere  in 
Tennessee  the  most  profound  impression.  Pity  for  the 
distressed  Alabamans,  fears  for  the  safety  of  their  own 
borders,  rage  against  the  Creeks,  so  long  the  recipients 
of  governmental  bounty,  united  to  inflame  the  minds  of 
the  people.  But  one  feeling  pervaded  the  State.  With 
one  voice  it  was  decreed  that  the  entire  resources  and 
the  whole  available  force  of  Tennessee  should  be  hurled 
upon  the  savage  foe,  to  avenge  the  massacre  and  deliver 
the  Southern  country. 

A  striking  narrative  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Legis 
lature  on  this  occasion,  and  of  the  nerve,  vigor,  and 
resolution  of  the  prostrate  Jackson,  lies  before  me,  from 
the  pen  of  Mr.  Enoch  Parsons,  then  a  member  of  the 
Senate  of  Tennessee.  "  I  arrived  at  Nashville,"  says 
this  gentleman,  "  on  the  Saturday  before  the  third  Mon 
day  in  September,  1813.  I  found  in  the  public  square  a 
very  large  crowd  of  people,  and  many  fine  speeches  were 
making  to  the  people,  and  the  talking  part  of  a  war  was 
never  better  performed.  I  was  invited  out  to  the  place 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


75 


where  the  orators  were  holding  forth,  and  invited  to 
address  the  people.  I  declined  the  distinction.  The  talk 
ing  ended,  and  resolutions  were  adopted,  the  substance 
of  which  was  that  the  enlightened  Legislature  would  con 
vene  on  the  next  Monday,  and  they  would  prepare  for 
the  emergency. 

"The  Legislature  was  composed  of  twenty  Senators 
and  forty  Representatives,  some  of  them  old,  infirm  men. 
As  soon  as  the  Houses  were  organized,  at  my  table  I 
wrote  a  bill,  and  introduced  it,  to  call  out  three  thousand 
five  hundred  men,  under  the  general  entitled  to  com 
mand,  and  place  them  in  the  Indian  nation,  so  that  they 
might  preserve  the  Mississippi  Territory  from  destruc 
tion  and  prevent  the  friendly  Indians  from  taking  the 
enemy's  side,  and  to  render  service  to  the  United  States 
until  the  United  States  could  provide  a  force.  The  bill 
pledged  all  the  revenue  of  the  State  for  one  hundred 
years  to  pay  the  expense,  and  authorized  the  Governor 
to  borrow  money  from  any  source  he  could,  and  at  the 
lowest  rate  he  could,  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  cam 
paign.  The  Secretary  of  State,  William  G.  Blount,  Major 
John  Russell,  a  Senator,  and  myself,  signed  or  indorsed 
the  Governor's  note  for  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and 
the  old  patriotic  State  Bank  lent  the  money  which  the 
note  called  for. 

"At  this  time  General  Jackson  was  lying,  as  he  had 
been  between  ten  and  twenty  days,  with  the  wounds  re 
ceived  in  the  battle  with  the  Bentons  and  others,  and 
had  not  been  out  of  his  room,  if  out  of  his  bed.  The 
Constitution  of  the  State  would  not  allow  the  bill  to  be 
come  a  law  until  it  had  passed  in  each  House  three  times 
on  different  days.  The  bill  was  therefore  passed  in  each 
House  on  Monday,  and  lay  in  the  Senate  for  Tuesday. 

"After  the  adjournment  of  the  Houses  on  Monday, 
as  I  passed  out  of  the  Senate-chamber,  I  was  accosted 


76  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

by  a  gentleman  and  presented  with  General  Jackson's 
compliments  and  a  request  that  I  should  see  him  forth 
with.  I  had  not  been  to  his  room  since  my  arrival.  I 
complied  with  his  request,  and  found  he  was  minutely 
informed  of  the  contents  of  the  bill  I  had  introduced, 
and  wished  to  know  if  it  would  pass ;  and  said  the  news 
of  the  introduction  of  the  bill  had  spread  all  over  the 
city,  and  that  it  was  called  the  War  Bill  or  Parsons'  Bill. 
I  assured  the  general  it  would  pass,  and  on  Wednesday 
would  be  a  law,  and  I  mentioned  that  I  regretted  very 
much  that  the  general  entitled  to  command,  and  who  all 
would  desire  should  command  the  forces  of  the  State, 
was  not  in  a  condition  to  take  the  field.  To  which 
General  Jackson  replied : 

"  '  The  devil  in  hell  he  is  not ! ' 

"  He  gritted  his  teeth  with  anguish  as  he  uttered  these 
words,  and  groaned  when  he  ceased  to  speak.  I  told 
him  that  I  hoped  I  was  mistaken,  but  that  I  did  not  be 
lieve  he  could  just  then  take  the  field.  After  some  time 
I  left  the  general.  Two  hours  afterward  I  received  fifty 
or  more  copies  of  his  orders,  which  had  been  made  out 
and  printed  in  the  meantime,  and  ordered  the  troops  to 
rendezvous  at  Fayetteville,  eighty  miles  on  the  way, 
on  Thursday.  At  the  bottom  of  the  order  was  a  note 
stating  that  the  health  of  the  commanding  general  was 
restored. 

"  That  evening,  or  the  next  day,  I  saw  Dr.  May, 
General  Jackson's  principal  physician,  and  inquired  of 
him  if  he  thought  General  Jackson  could  possibly  march. 
Dr.  May  said  that  no  other  man  could,  and  that  it  was 
uncertain  whether,  with  his  spunk  and  energy,  he  could ; 
but  that  it  was  entirely  uncertain  what  General  Jackson 
could  do  in  such  circumstances. 

"  I  felt  much  anxiety  for  the  country  and  for  the 
general ;  and  when  the  general  started — which  was,  I 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


77 


think,  on  the  day  before  the  law  passed — Dr.  May  went 
with  him  and  returned  in  three  or  four  days:  I  called 
on  Dr.  May,  upon  his  return,  and  inquired  how  the  gen 
eral  had  got  along;  whereupon  the  doctor  stated  that 
they  had  to  stop  the  general  frequently  and  wash  him 
from  head  to  foot  in  solutions  of  sugar  of  lead  to  keep 
down  inflammation ;  and  that  he  was  better,  and  he  and 
his  troops  had  gone  on !  The  Legislature  then  prefixed 
a  supplemental  bill  to  suspend  all  actions  in  which  the 
volunteers  were  concerned  in  the  courts  until  their  re 
turn." 

There,  reader,  you  have  ANDREW  JACKSON — the  ex 
planation  of  his  character,  of  his  success,  of  his  celebrity. 
If  any  one  inquires  of  you  what  manner  of  man  Andrew 
Jackson  was,  answer  him  by  telling  Mr.  Parsons's  story. 

The  4th  of  October  was  the  day  named  in  the  gen 
eral's  orders  for  the  rendezvous  at  Fayetteville,  a  village 
near  the  northern  borders  of  Alabama.  Ten  days  be 
fore  the  day  of  rendezvous  he  dispatched  his  old  friend 
and  partner,  Colonel  Coffee,  with  his  regiment  of  five 
hundred  horse,  and  such  mounted  volunteers  as  could 
instantly  join,  to  Huntsville,  in  the  northern  part  of 
Alabama,  to  restore  confidence  to  the  frontier.  Hunts 
ville  is  a  hundred  miles  or  more  from  Nashville.  On 
the  4th  of  October  the  energetic  Coffee  had  reached  the 
place,  his  force  increased  to  nearly  thirteen  hundred 
men,  and  volunteers,  as  he  wrote  back  to  his  com 
mander,  flocking  in  every  hour. 

The  day  named  for  the  rendezvous  at  Fayetteville 
was  exactly  one  month  from  that  on  which  the  com 
manding  general  received  his  wounds  in  the  affray  with 
the  Bentons.  He  could  not  mount  his  horse  without  as 
sistance  when  the  time  came  for  him  to  move  toward  the 
rendezvous.  His  left  arm  was  bound  and  in  a  sling.  He 
could  not  wear  his  coat-sleeve;  nor,  during  any  part  of 


78  GENERAL  JACKSON.' 

his  military  career,  could  he  long  endure  on  his  left 
shoulder  the  weight  of  an  epaulet.  Often,  in  the  crisis 
of  a  manoeuvre,  some  unguarded  movement  would  send 
such  a  thrill  of  agony  through  his  attenuated  frame  as 
almost  to  deprive  him  of  consciousness.  It  could  not 
have  been  a  pleasant  thought  that  he  had  squandered 
in  a  paltry,  puerile,  private  contest,  the  strength  he 
needed  for  the  defense  of  his  country.  Grievous  was 
his  fault,  bitter  the  penalty,  noble  the  atonement. 

Traveling  as  fast  as  his  healing  wounds  permitted, 
General  Jackson  reached  Fayetteville  on  the  yth  of 
October,  and  found  that  less  than  half  of  the  two  thou 
sand  men  ordered  out  had  assembled.  But  welcome 
tidings  from  Colonel  Coffee  awaited  him.  Hitherto  he 
had  chiefly  feared  for  the  safety  of  Mobile,  and  had 
anticipated  a  long  and  weary  march  into  southern  Ala 
bama.  He  now  learned  from  Colonel  Coffee's  dispatch 
that  the  Indians  seemed  to  have  abandoned  their  design 
upon  Mobile,  and  were  making  their  way,  in  two  parties, 
toward  the  borders  of  Georgia  and  Tennessee.  This 
was  joyful  news  to  the  enfeebled  but  fiery  commander. 
"  It  is  surely,"  he  wrote  back  to  Coffee  the  same  even 
ing,  "  high  gratification  to  learn  that  the  Creeks  are  so 
attentive  to  my  situation  as  to  save  me  the  pain  of 
traveling.  I  must  not  be  outdone  in  politeness,  and  will 
therefore  endeavor  to  meet  them  on  the  middle  ground." 

A  week  was  passed  at  Fayetteville  in  waiting  for  the 
troops,  procuring  supplies,  organizing  the  regiments, 
and  drilling  the  men;  a  week  of  intense  exertion  on  the 
part  of  the  general,  to  whom  congenial  employment 
brought  daily  restoration.  . 

At  one  o'clock  on  Monday,  the  nth  of  October,  an 
express  dashed  into  camp  with  another  dispatch  from 
Colonel  Coffee  announcing  the  approach  of  the  enemy. 
The  order  to  prepare  for  marching  was  given  on  the  in- 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


79 


stant.  A  few  minutes  later  the  express  was  galloping 
back  to  Coffee's  camp,  carrying  a  few  hasty  lines  from 
Jackson,  to  the  effect  that  in  two  hours  he  would  be  in 
motion  with  all  his  available  force.  Before  three  he  had 
kept  his  word — the  army  was  in  full  career  toward 
Huntsville.  Excited  more  and  more,  as  they  went,  by 
rumors  of  Indian  murders,  the  men  marched  with  such 
incredible  swiftness  as  to  reach  Huntsville,  thirty-two 
miles  from  Fayetteville,  by  eight  o'clock  the  same  even 
ing  !  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  an  army  could  march  six 
miles  an  hour  for  five  hours,  but  the  fact  is  stated  on 
what  may  be  considered  the  authority  of  General  Jack 
son  himself.  At  Huntsville  it  was  found  that  the  news 
of  the  rapid  approach  of  the  Indians  was  exaggerated. 
The  next  day,  therefore,  the  force  marched  leisurely  to 
the  Tennessee  River,  crossed  it,  and  toward  evening  came 
up  with  Colonel  Coffee's  command,  encamped  on  the 
south  side  of  the  river. 

So  far  all  had  gone  well.  There  they  were,  twenty- 
five  hundred  of  them,  in  the  pleasant  autumn  weather, 
upon  a  high  bluff  overlooking  the  beautiful  Tennessee, 
all  in  high  spirits,  eager  to  be  led  against  the  enemyt 
There  were  jovial  souls  among  them.  David  Crockett, 
then  the  peerless  bear-hunter  of  the  West  (to  be  member 
of  Congress  by  and  by,  to  be  national  joker,  and  to 
stump  the  country  against  his  present  commander),  was 
there  with  his  rifle  and  hunting-shirt,  the  merriest  of  the 
merry,  keeping  the  camp  alive  with  his  quaint  conceits 
and  marvelous  narratives.  He  had  a  hereditary  right 
to  be  there,  for  both  his  grandparents  had  been  murdered 
by  Creeks,  and  other  relatives  carried  into  long  cap 
tivity  by  them.  Merriment,  meanwhile,  was  far  from 
the  heart  of  the  general.  Grappling  now  with  the 
chronic  difficulty  of  the  campaign,  he  was  torn  with  im 
patience  and  anxiety. 


g0  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Twenty-five  hundred  men  and  thirteen  hundred 
horses  were  on  a  bluff  of  the  Tennessee,  on  the  borders 
of  civilization,  about  to  plunge  into  pathless  woods,  and 
march,  no  one  knew  how  far,  into  the  fastnesses  and 
secret  retreats  of  a  savage  enemy !  Such  a  body  will 
consume  ten  wagon-loads  of  provisions  every  day.  For 
a  week's  subsistence  they  require  a  thousand  bushels  of 
grain,  twenty  tons  of  flesh,  a  thousand  gallons  of  whisky, 
and  many  hundredweight  of  miscellaneous  stores.  As 
semble,  suddenly,  such  a  force  in  the  most  populous 
county  of  Oregon,  as  Oregon  now  is,  and  it  would  not 
be  a  quite  easy  matter,  in  the  space  of  seventeen  days, 
to  organize  a  system  of  supply  so  that  the  army  could 
march  thirty  miles  a  day  into  the  forest  and  be  sure  of 
finding  a  day's  ration  waiting  for  them  at  the  end  of 
every  day's  march.  Colonel  Coffee,  moreover,  had  been 
encamped  for  eight  days  upon  the  bluff,  had  swept  the 
surrounding  country  of  its  forage,  and  gathered  in 
nearly  all  the  provisions  it  could  furnish.  All  this 
General  Jackson  had  expected,  and  hither,  accordingly, 
he  had  directed  the  supplies  from  East  Tennessee  to  be 
sent. 

The  contractor  had  abundant  provisions,  and  in 
stantly  set  about  dispatching  them.  "  I  believe,"  wrote 
General  Cocke  (commander  of  the  forces  of  East  Ten 
nessee)  to  Jackson,  on  the  2d  of  October,  "a  thousand 
barrels  of  flour  can  be  had  immediately.  I  will  send  it 
on  to  Ditto's  Landing  (Jackson's  camp)  without  delay." 
To  the  river's  side  they  were  sent  promptly  enough. 
But  the  Tennessee,  like  most  of  the  Western  rivers,  is  not 
navigable  in  its  upper  waters  in  dry  seasons,  and  the 
flour  which  General  Jackson  expected  to  find  awaiting 
him  at  Coffee's  bluff  was  still  hundreds  of  miles  up  the 
river,  "  waiting  for  a  rise."  His  whole  stock  at  present 
amounted  to  only  a  few  days'  supply.  To  proceed 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED.  gl 

seemed  impossible.  Nor  was  the  cause  of  the  delay  ap 
parent  to  him,  since  the  Tennessee,  where  he  saw  it, 
flowed  by  in  a  sufficient  stream.  Chafing  under  the  en 
forced  delay,  like  a  war-horse  restrained  from  the  charge 
after  the  trumpet  has  sounded,  he  denounced  the  con 
tractor  and  the  contract  system,  and  even  General  Cocke, 
who,  zealous  for  the  service,  had  gone^far  beyond  the 
line  of  his  duty  in  his  efforts  to  forward  the  supplies. 

But  General  Jackson  did  better  things  than  these. 
Perceiving  now,  only  too  clearly,  that  this  matter  of 
provisions  was  to  be  the  great  difficulty  of  the  campaign, 
he  sent  back  to  Nashville  his  friend  and  quartermaster, 
Major  William  B.  Lewis,  in  order  that  he  might  have 
some  one  there  upon  whose  zeal  and  discretion  he  could 
entirely  rely,  and  who  would  do  all  that  man  could  do 
for  his  relief.  Colonel  Coffee,  with  a  body  of  seven 
hundred  mounted  men,  he  sent  away  from  his  hungry 
camp  to  scour  the  banks  of  the  Black  Warrior,  a  branch 
of  the  Tombigbee.  He  gave  the  infantry  who  remained 
as  hard  a  week's  drilling  as  ever  volunteers  submitted 
to.  Order  arose  from  confusion ;  discipline  began  to 
exert  its  potent  spell,  and  the  mob  of  pioneer  militia 
assumed  something  of  the  aspect  of  an  army.  While 
he  was  thus  engaged,  a  friendly  chief  (Shelocta)  came 
into  camp  with  the  news  that  hostile  Creeks  in  a  con 
siderable  body  were  threatening  a  fort  occupied  by 
friendly  Indians  near  the  Ten  Islands  of  the  Coosa. 
The  route  thither  lying  in  part  up  the  Tennessee, 
Jackson  resolved,  with  such  provisions  as  he  had,  to  go 
and  meet  the  expected  flotilla,  and,  having  obtained 
supplies,  to  strike  at  once  into  the  heart  of  the  Indian 
country  and  relieve  the  friendly  fort.  He  lived,  during 
these  anxious  days,  with  an  eye  ever  on  the  river,  heart 
sick  with  hope  deferred. 

On  the  iQth  of  October  the  camp  on  the  bluff  broke 


82  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

up.  Three  days  of  marching,  climbing,  and  road-cut 
ting,  over  mountains  before  supposed  to  be  impassable, 
brought  the  little  army  to  Thompson's  Creek,  a  branch 
of  the  Tennessee,  twenty-two  miles  above  the  previous 
encampment.  To  his  inexpressible  disappointment,  he 
found  there  neither  provisions  nor  tidings  of  provisions. 
In  circumstances  so  disheartening  and  unexpected  most 
men  would  have  thought  it  better  generalship  to  retreat 
to  the  settlements  and  wait  in  safety  while  adequate 
arrangements  were  made  for  the  support  of  the  army. 
No  such  thought  appears  to  have  occurred  to  the  gen 
eral.  Retreat  at  that  moment  would  have  probably 
tempted  the  enemy  to  the  frontiers  of  Tennessee,  and 
covered  them  with  fire  and  desolation.  Jackson  halted 
his  force  at  Thompson's  Creek,  and  while  his  men  were 
employed  in  throwing  up  a  fort  to  be  used  as  a  depot 
for  the  still  expected  provisions,  he  sat  in  his  tent  for 
three  days  writing  letters  the  most  pathetic  and  implor 
ing.  He  wrote  to  General  Cocke  and  Judge  Hugh  L. 
White,  of  East  Tennessee;  to  the  Governors  of  Tennes 
see  and  Georgia;  to  the  Indian  agents  among  the  Chero- 
kees  and  Choctaws;  to  friendly  Indian  chiefs;  to  Gen 
eral  Flourney,  of  New  Orleans  ;  to  various  private  friends 
of  known  public  spirit — appealing  to  every  motive  of  in 
terest  and  patriotism  that  could  influence  men,  entreat 
ing  them  to  use  all  personal  exertions  and  public  au 
thority  in  forwarding  supplies  to  his  destitute  army. 
"  Give  me  provisions,"  was  the  burden  of  these  eloquent 
letters,  "  and  I  will  end  this  war  in  a  month."  "  There  is 
an  enemy,"  he  wrote,  "whom  I  dread  much  more  than  I 
do  the  hostile  Creeks,  and  whose  power,  I  am  fearful,  I 
shall  be  first  made  to  feel — I  mean  the  meager  monster 
FAMINE.  I  shall  leave  this  encampment  in  the  morning 
direct  for  the  Ten  Islands,  and  thence,  with  as  little  delay 
as  possible,  to  the  junction  of  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa; 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED.  83 

and  yet  I  have  not  on  hand  two  days'  supply  of  bread- 
stuffs." 

Colonel  Coffee  soon  after  joined  the  general.  In 
twelve  days  he  had  marched  two  hundred  miles,  burned 
two  Indian  towns,  collected  three  or  four  hundred  bush 
els  of  corn,  and  returned  to  the  Tennessee  without  hav 
ing  seen  a  hostile  Indian.  Runners  still  arriving  from 
the  Ten  Islands  with  entreaties  from  the  friendly  Indians 
for  relief,  Jackson,  with  two  days'  supply  of  bread  and 
six  of  meat,  resolved  to  march,  and  depend  for  subsist- 
ance  upon  chance  and  victory.  Leaving  Fort  Deposit 
on  the  25th  of  October,  the  general  marched  southward 
into  the  enemy's  country  as  fast  as  the  state  of  his  com 
missariat  permitted ;  halting  when  his  corn  quite  gave 
out ;  marching  again  when  he  procured  a  day's  supply ; 
sending  out  detachments  to  burn  villages  and  find  hid 
den  stores;  writing  letter  after  letter  imploring  succor 
from  the  settlements ;  always  resolute,  always  in  sus 
pense.  On  one  of  these  days,  Colonel  Dyer,  who  had 
been  sent  out  with  a  detachment  of  two  hundred  men, 
returned  to  camp  with  twenty-nine  prisoners  and  a  con 
siderable  supply  of  corn,  the  spoils  of  a  burned  village. 
Other  slight  successes  on  the  march  served  to  keep  the 
men  in  good  spirits,  but  were  not  sufficient  to  lift  for 
more  than  a  moment  the  load  of  care  that  rested  upon 
the  heart  of  the  general.  A  week  brought  the  whole 
force,  intact,  to  the  banks  of  the  Coosa,  within  a  few 
miles  of  the  Ten  Islands,  near  which,  at  a  town  called 
Talluschatches,  it  was  now  known,  a  large  body  of  the 
Indians  had  assembled. 

Talluschatches  was  thirteen  miles  from  General 
Jackson's  camp.  On  the  2d  of  November  came  the  wel 
come  order  to  General  Coffee  (he  had  just  been  pro 
moted)  to  march  with  a  thousand  mounted  men  to  de 
stroy  this  town.  Late  in  the  same  day  the  detachment 


84  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

were  on  the  trail,  accompanied  by  a  body  of  friendly 
Creeks  wearing  white  feathers  and  white  deers'  tails,  to 
distinguish  them  from  their  hostile  brethren.  The  next 
morning's  sun  shone  upon  Coffee  and  his  men  preparing 
to  assault  the  town. 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  General  Coffee,  hav 
ing  destroyed  the  town,  killed  two  hundred  of  the  enemy, 
and  buried  five  of  his  own  men,  led  his  victorious  troops 
back  to  Jackson's  camp,  where  he  received  from  his 
general  and  the  rest  of  the  army  the  welcome  that  brave 
men  give  to  brave  men  returning  from  triumph.  Along 
with  the  returning  horsemen,  joyful  with  their  victory, 
came  into  camp  a  sorrowful  procession  of  prisoners,  all 
women  or  children,  all  widows  or  fatherless,  all  helpless 
and  destitute.  They  were  humanely  cared  for  by  the 
troops,  and  soon  after  sent  to  the  settlements  for  main 
tenance  during  the  war. 

On  the  bloody  field  of  Talluschatches  was  found  a 
slain  mother  still  embracing  her  living  infant.  The 
child  was  brought  into  camp  with  the  other  prisoners, 
and  Jackson,  anxious  to  save  it,  endeavored  to  induce 
some  of  the  Indian  women  to  give  it  nourishment. 
"No,"  said  they,  "all  his  relations  are  dead;  kill  him 
too."  This  reply  appealed  to  the  heart  of  the  general. 
He  caused  the  child  to  be  taken  to  his  own  tent,  where, 
among  the  few  remaining  stores,  was  found  a  little  brown 
sugar.  This,  mingled  with  water,  served  to  keep  the  child 
alive  until  it  could  be  sent  to  Huntsville,  where  it  was 
nursed  at  Jackson's  expense  until  the  end  of  the  cam 
paign,  and  then  taken  to  the  Hermitage.  Mrs.  Jackson 
received  it  cordially ;  and  the  boy  grew  up  in  the  family, 
treated  by  the  general  and  his  kind  wife  as  a  son  and 
favorite. 

It  was  General  Jackson's  turn  next.  Thirty  miles 
from  his  encampment  on  the  Coosa  stood  a  small  fort, 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY    INVADED.  85 

into  which,  as  before  intimated,  a  party  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty-four  friendly  Creeks  had  fled  for  safety.  The 
site  of  this  fort  is  now  covered  by  part  of  the  town  of 
Talladega,  the  capital  of  Talladega  County,  Alabama,  a 
thriving  place  of  several  thousand  inhabitants,  situated 
on  a  branch  of  the  Coosa,  in  the  midst  of  beautiful 
mountain  scenery.  This  region  was,  at  the  time  of 
which  we  are  now  writing,  literally  a  howling  wilderness ; 
for,  while  General  Coffee  was  returning  in  triumph  from 
Talluschatches,  more  than  a  thousand  hostile  Creeks 
suddenly  surrounded  the  friendly  fort  and  invested  it  so 
completely  that  not  a  man  could  escape.  With  only  a 
small  supply  of  corn,  and  scarcely  any  water,  outnum 
bered  seven  to  one,  and  unable  to  send  intelligence  of 
their  situation,  the  inmates  of  the  fort  seemed  doomed 
to  massacre.  The  assailants  appear  to  have  comported 
themselves  on  this  occasion  in  the  manner  of  a  cat  sure 
of  her  mojuse.  They  whooped  and  sported  around  their 
prey,  waiting  for  terror  or  starvation  to  save  them  the 
trouble  of  conquest. 

Some  days  passed.  The  sufferings  of  the  belea 
guered  Indians  from  thirst  began  to  be  intolerable.  A 
noted  chief  of  the  party  resolved  upon  making  one  des 
perate  effort  to  escape  and  carry  the  news  to  Jackson's 
camp.  Enveloping  himself  in  the  skin  of  a  large  hog, 
with  the  head  and  feet  attached,  he  left  the  fort,  and 
went  about  rooting  and  grunting,  gradually  working 
his  way  through  the  hostile  host  until  he  was  beyond 
the  reach  of  their  arrows;  then,  throwing  off  his  dis 
guise,  he  fled  with  the  swiftness  of  the  wind.  Not  know 
ing  precisely  where  General  Jackson  was,  he  did  not 
reach  the  camp  till  late  in  the  evening  of  the  next  day, 
when  he  came  in,  breathless  and  exhausted,  and  told  his 
story. 

This  was  on  the  yth  of  November,  four  days  after 
7 


86  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

the  affair  of  Talluschatches,  during  which  the  general 
and  the  troops  had  been  busy  in  erecting  a  fortification, 
or  depot,  which  was  named  Fort  Strother.  The  army 
was  still,  as  it  had  been  from  the  beginning  of  the  cam 
paign,  only  a  few  days  removed  from  starvation.  Con 
tractors  had  been  dismissed,  new  ones  appointed,  more 
imploring  letters  written,  and  every  conceivable  effort 
made,  and  yet  no  system  had  been  devised  to  overcome 
the  inherent  difficulties  of  the  work.  To  the  general's 
other  embarrassments  was  now  added  the  care  of  the 
considerable  number  of  wounded  and  sick,  many  of 
whom  could  not  be  moved.  There  was  one  encouraging 
circumstance,  however.  The  troops  from  East  Tennes 
see,  under  Major-General  Cocke  and  Brigadier-General 
White,  had  at  length  reached  the  vicinity,  and  a  force 
under  General  White  was  expected  to  join  the  next  day, 
and  so  bring  with  them  some  supplies.  So  General 
White  himself  had  written.  Jackson,  at  the  moment 
when  the  messenger  from  the  beleaguered  fort  arrived, 
was  in  his  tent  closing  his  reply  to  the  coming  general, 
to  whom  he  imparted  the  new  intelligence  and  an 
nounced  his  intentions  with  regard  to  it,  adding  that  he 
depended  upon  him  (General  White)  to  protect  his  camp 
during  his  own  absence  from  it. 

Relying  with  the  utmost  possible  confidence  upon 
General  White's  arrival,  Jackson,  with  his  usual  prompti 
tude,  issued  orders  for  his  whole  division,  except  a  few 
men  to  guard  the  post  and  attend  the  sick,  to  prepare 
for  marching  that  very  evening.  He  had  taken  the  res 
olution  to  rush  to  the  relief  of  the  friendly  Creeks,  justly 
supposing  that  the  massacre  of  such  a  body,  within  so 
short  a  distance  of  an  American  army,  would  intimidate 
all  the  friendly  Indians,  and  tend  to  unite  the  Southern 
tribes  as  one  man  against  the  United  States. 

At  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  November  8th, 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED.  gjr 

eight  hundred  horsemen  and  twelve  hundred  foot,  under 
command  of  General  Jackson,  stood  on  the  bank  of  the 
Coosa,  one  mile  above  Fort  Strother,  ready  to  cross. 
The  river  was  wide,  but  fordable  for  horsemen.  Each  of 
the  mounted  men,  taking  behind  him  one  of  the  infantry, 
rode  across  the  river  and  then  returned  for  another. 
This  operation  consumed  so  long  a  time  that  it  was 
nearly  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  the  whole  force 
was  drawn  up  on  the  opposite  bank  prepared  to  move. 
A  long  and  weary  march  through  a  country  wild  and 
uninhabited  brought  them  about  sunset  within  six  miles 
of  Talladega.  There  the  general  thought  it  best  to  halt 
and  give  repose  to  the  troops,  taking  precautions  to 
conceal  his  presence  from  the  enemy. 

There  was  no  repose  for  the  general  that  night.  Till 
late  in  the  evening  he  remained  awake,  receiving  reports 
from  the  spies  sent  out  to  reconnoitre  the  enemy's  posi 
tion,  and  making  arrangements  for  the  morrow's  work. 
At  midnight  an  Indian  came  into  the  camp  with  a  dis 
patch  from  General  White,  announcing,  to  Jackson's 
inexpressible  astonishment  and  dismay,  that,  in  conse 
quence  of  positive  orders  from  General  Cocke,  he  would 
not  be  able  to  protect  Fort  Strother,  but  must  return 
and  rejoin  his  general  immediately.  No  other  explana 
tion  was  given.  Jackson  was  in  sore  perplexity.  To 
go  forward,  was  to  leave  the  sick  and  wounded  at  Fort 
Strother  to  the  mercy  of  any  strolling  party  of  savages. 
To  retreat,  would  bring  certain  destruction  upon  the 
friendly  Creeks,  and  probably  the  whole  besieging  force 
upon  his  own  rear.  In  this  painful  dilemma  he  resolved 
upon  the  boldest  measures  and  the  wisest — to  strike  the 
foe  in  his  front  at  the  dawn  of  day,  and,  having  deliv 
ered  the  inmates  of  the  fort,  hasten  from  the  battlefield 
to  the  protection  of  Fort  Strother. 

Before  four  in  the   morning  the  army  was   in   full 


88  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

march  toward  the  enemy.  A  sudden  and  vigorous  at 
tack  soon  put  to  flight  the  besieging  host,  and  set  free 
the  loyal  Creeks,  whose  delight  at  their  escape  is  de 
scribed  to  have  been  affecting  in  the  extreme.  Besides 
being  nearly  dead  from  thirst,  they  were  anticipating  an 
assault  that  very  day,  and  had  no  knowledge  of  Jack 
son's  approach  until  they  heard  the  noise  of  the  battle. 
Fifteen  minutes  after  the  action  became  general  the  sav 
ages  were  flying  headlong  in  every  direction  and  falling 
fast  under  the  swords  of  the  pursuing  troops.  The  de 
livered  Creeks  ran  out  of  the  fort,  and,  having  appeased 
their  raging  thirst,  thronged  around  their  deliverer,  tes 
tifying  their  delight  and  gratitude.  The  little  corn  that 
they  could  spare  the  general  bought  and  distributed 
among  his  hungry  men  and  horses.  He  had  left  Fort 
Strother  with  only  provisions  for  little  more  than  one 
day,  and  the  supply  obtained  from  the  Creeks  amounted 
to  less  than  a  meal  for  his  victorious  army. 

The  dead  honorably  buried,  and  the  wounded  placed 
in  litters,  the  troops  marched  back  to  Fort  Strother  the 
day  after  the  battle.  They  arrived  tired  and  hungry, 
yet  fondly  hoping  that  in  their  absence  some  supplies 
had  been  collected.  Not  a  peck  of  meal,  not  a  pound 
of  flesh  had  reached  the  fort,  and  they  found  their  sick 
and  wounded  comrades  as  hungry  as  themselves.  It 
was  a  bitter  moment.  The  general  was  in  an  agony  of 
disappointment  and  apprehension.  The  men,  though 
returning  from  victory,  murmured  ominously.  Until 
this  day  the  general  and  his  staff  had  subsisted  upon 
private  stores  procured  and  transported  at  his  own  ex 
pense.  Before  leaving  for  Talladega  he  had  directed 
the  surgeons  to  draw  upon  these  if  necessary  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  sick,  and  upon  his  return  he  found 
that  all  had  been  consumed  except  a  few  pounds  of  bis 
cuit.  These  were  immediately  distributed  among  the 


THE  CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


89 


hungry  applicants,  not  one  being  reserved  for  the  gen 
eral.  Concealing  his  feelings  and  assuming  a  cheerful 
aspect,  he  went  among  the  men  and  endeavored  to  give 
the  affair  a  jocular  turn.  He  went  with  his  staff  to  the 
slaughtering-place  of  the  camp  and  brought  away  from 
the  refuse  there  the  means  of  satisfying  his  appetite, 
declaring  with  a  smiling  face  that  tripe  was  a  savory 
and  nutritious  article  of  food,  and  that  for  his  part  he 
desired  nothing  better.  For  several  days  succeeding, 
while  a  few  lean  cattle  were  the  only  support  of  the 
army,  General  Jackson  and  his  military  family  subsisted 
upon  tripe,  without  bread  or  seasoning. 

Jackson  soon  saw  the  effect  of  his  brilliant  success 
at  Talladega.  The  Hillabee  warriors,  who  had  been 
defeated  in  that  battle,  at  once  sent  a  messenger  to  Fort 
Strother  to  sue  for  peace.  Jackson's  reply  was  prompt 
and  characteristic.  His  Government,  he  said,  had  taken 
up  arms  to  avenge  the  most  gross  depredations,  and  to 
bring  back  to  a  sense  of  duty  a  people  to  whom  it  had 
shown  the  utmost  kindness.  When  those  objects  were 
attained  the  war  would  cease,  but  not  till  then.  "  Upon 
those,"  he  continued,  "who  are  disposed  to  become 
friendly,  I  neither  wish  nor  intend  to  make  war,  but 
they  must  afford  evidences  of  the  sincerity  of  their  pro 
fessions;  the  prisoners  and  property  they  have  taken 
from  us  and  the  friendly  Creeks  must  be  restored;  the 
instigators  of  the  war,  and  the  murderers  of  our  citizens, 
must  be  surrendered  ;  the  latter  must  and  will  be  made 
to  feel  the  force  of  our  resentment.  Long  shall  they 
remember  Fort  Mims  in  bitterness  and  tears." 

The  Hillabee  messenger,  who  was  an  old  Scotchman, 
long  domesticated  among  the  Indians,  departed  with 
Jackson's  reply.  It  was  never  delivered.  Before  the 
message  reached  the  Hillabees  an  event  occurred  which 
banished  from  their  minds  all  thought  of  peace,  chang- 


90  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

ing  them  from  suppliants  for  pardon  into  enemies  the 
most  resolute  and  deadly  of  all  the  Indians  in  the  South 
ern  country.  General  White,  of  East  Tennessee,  totally 
unaware  of  the  state  of  feeling  among  the  Hillabees, 
nay,  supposing  them  to  be  inveterately  hostile,  marched 
rapidly  into  their  country,  burning  and  destroying.  On 
his  way  he  burned  one  village  of  thirty  houses,  and 
another  of  ninety-three.  The  principal  Hillabee  town> 
whence  had  proceeded  the  messenger  to  Jackson  asking 
peace,  and  whither  that  messenger  was  to  return  that 
day,  General  White  surprised  at  daybreak,  killed  sixty 
warriors,  and  captured  two  hundred  and  fifty  women  and 
children.  Having  burned  the  town,  he  returned  to  Gen 
eral  Cocke,  supposing  that  he  had  done  the  State  some 
service. 

The  feelings  of  the  Hillabee  tribe  may  be  imagined. 
This,  then,  is  General  Jackson's  answer  to  our  humble 
suit !  Thus  does  he  respond  to  friendly  overtures ! 
They  never  knew  General  Jackson's  innocence  of  this 
deed.  From  that  time  to  the  end  of  the  war  it  was 
observed  that  the  Indians  fought  with  greater  fury  and 
persistence  than  before,  for  they  fought  with  the  blended 
energy  of  hatred  and  despair.  There  was  no  suing  for 
peace,  no  asking  for  quarter.  To  fight  as  long  as  they 
could  stand,  and  as  much  longer  as  they  could  sit  or 
kneel,  and  then  as  long  as  they  had  strength  to  shoot  an 
arrow  or  pull  a  trigger,  were  all  that  they  supposed  re 
mained  to  them  after  the  destruction  of  the  Hillabees. 

"  An  army,  like  a  serpent,  goes  upon  its  belly," 
Frederick  of  Prussia  used  to  say.  "  Few  men  know," 
Marshal  MacMahon  is  reported  to  have  remarked  after 
one  of  the  Italian  battles,  "  how  important  it  is  in  war 
for  soldiers  not  to  be  kept  waiting  for  their  rations,  and 
what  vast  events  depend  upon  an  army's  not  going  into 
action  before  it  has  had  its  coffee." 


THE   CREEK  COUNTRY   INVADED.  91 

We  left  General  Jackson  at  Fort  Strother,  giving  out 
his  last  biscuit  to  his  hungry  troops  and  appeasing  his 
own  appetite  with  unseasoned  tripe.  Then  followed 
ten  long  weeks  of  agonizing  perplexity,  during  which, 
though  the  enemy  was  unmolested  by  the  Tennessee 
troops,  their  general  appeared  in  a  light  more  truly 
heroic  than  at  any  other  part  of  his  military  life.  His 
fortitude,  his  will,  alone  saved  the  campaign.  His  burn 
ing  letters  kept  the  cause  alive  in  the  State  ;  his  example, 
resolution,  activity,  and  courage  preserved  the  conquests 
already  achieved,  and  prepared  the  way  for  others  that 
threw  them  into  the  shade.  The  spectacle  of  a  brave 
man  contending  with  difficulties  is  one  in  which  the 
gods  were  said  to  take  delight.  Such  a  spectacle  was 
exhibited  by  Andrew  Jackson  during  these  weeks  of 
enforced  inaction. 

Hunger,  that  great  tamer  of  beasts  and  men,  is  pre 
cisely  the  enemy  against  which  amateur  soldiers  are 
least  able  to  contend.  Lounging  and  dozing  about  the 
camp,  unable  to  make  the  slightest  attempt  against  the 
foe,  their  first  love  of  adventure  satisfied,  desirous  to 
recount  their  exploits  to  friends  at  home,  pining  for  the 
abundance  they  had  left,  anxious  for  their  farms  and 
families,  and  angered  at  the  supposed  neglect  of  the 
State  authorities  and  contractors,  the  troops  became  dis 
contented,  and  began  to  clamor  for  the  order  to  return 
into  the  settlements.  Jackson's  force  consisted  of  two 
kinds  of  troops,  militia  and  volunteers.  It  seemed  at 
first  a  proof  of  the  safety  of  the  purely  voluntary  prin 
ciple  that  it  was  among  the  militia  that  the  discontents 
took  quickest  root ;  the  pride  of  the  volunteers  keeping 
them  firm  in  their  duty  after  the  militia  were  resolved 
to  abandon  theirs.  It  is  said,  however,  that  some  of 
the  volunteers  who,  from  their  having  accompanied  the 
general  on  his  fruitless  march  to  Natchez,  were  looked 


92  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

upon  as  the  veterans  of  the  army,  were  not  the  last  to 
join  the  malcontents,  nor  the  most  moderate  in  express 
ing  their  feelings.  These  men  spoke  with  a  kind  of 
oracular  authority,  which  had  influence  with  the  younger 
soldiers.  Some  of  the  officers,  too,  overcome  by  that 
bane  and  blight  of  republican  virtue,  the  lust  of  popu 
larity,  secretly  sided  with  the  men  and  fomented  their 
mutinous  disposition.  In  secluded  places  about  the 
camp,  by  the  watch  fires  at  night,  wherever  a  group  of 
hungry  soldiers  were  together,  they  talked  of  their 
wrongs,  of  the  uselessness  of  remaining  where  they 
were,  and  how  much  better  it  would  be  for  the  army  to 
return  home  for  a  while,  and  finish  the  war  under  better 
auspices  at  a  more  convenient  season. 

In  circumstances  like  these  revolt  ripens  apace.  Ten 
days  of  gnawing  hunger  and  inaction  at  Fort  Strother 
brought  all  the  militia  regiments  to  the  resolution  of 
marching  back  in  a  body  to  the  settlements,  with  or 
without  the  consent  of  the  commanding  general,  and  a 
day  was  fixed  upon  for  their  departure.  Jackson  heard 
of  it  in  time.  On  the  designated  morning  the  militia 
began  the  homeward  movement ;  but  they  found  a  lion 
in  the  path.  The  general  was  up  before  them,  and  had 
drawn  up  on  the  road  leading  to  the  settlements  the 
whole  body  of  volunteers,  with  orders  to  prevent  the 
departure  of  the  militia,  peaceably  if  they  could,  forcibly 
if  they  must.  The  militia,  in  this  unexpected  posture 
of  affairs,  renounced  their  intention,  and,  obeying  the 
orders  of  the  general,  returned  to  their  position  and 
their  duty. 

It  soon,  appeared,  however,  that  the  volunteers  were 
as  much  chagrined  and  disappointed  at  the  success  of 
this  movement  as  the  militia,  and,  ere  night  closed  in, 
resolved  themselves  to  depart  on  the  following  day. 
The  general,  apprised  of  their  intention,  was  again  early 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


93 


in  the  field.  Imagine  the  surprise  of  the  volunteers 
when,  on  taking  the  projected  line  of  march,  they  found 
drawn  up  in  hostile  array  to  prevent  them  the  very 
militia  whose  departure  they  had  frustrated  the  day 
before !  The  militia  stood  firm,  and  the  volunteers,  not 
without  some  grim  laughter  at  this  practical  revolt, 
returned  to  their  stations.  The  cavalry,  however,  hav 
ing  petitioned  the  general  for  permission  to  retire  to 
Huntsville  long  enough  to  recruit  their  famished  horses, 
promising  to  return  when  that  object  was  accomplished, 
were  allowed  to  leave.  Jackson  remained  in  the  wilder 
ness  with  his  thousand  infantry,  now  sullen  and  enraged, 
and  rapidly  approaching  the  point  of  downright  mutiny. 
As  was  his  wont  in  every  crisis,  the  general  tried  the 
effect  of  a  patriotic  address.  Inviting  the  officers  of  all 
grades  to  his  quarters,  he  first  laid  before  them  the  let 
ters  last  received  from  Tennessee,  which  gave  assurance 
that  a  plentiful  supply  of  provisions  was  already  on  the 
way,  and  that  measures  were  in  operation  which  would 
insure  a  sufficiency  in  future.  He  then  delivered  a  warm 
and  energetic  speech,  extolling  their  past  achievements, 
lamenting  their  privations,  and  urging  them  still  to  per 
severe.  The  conquests  they  had  already  made,  he  said, 
were  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  the  most  dreadful 
consequences  would  result  from  abandoning  them.  "To 
be  sure,"  said  he  in  conclusion,  "  we  do  not  live  sumptu 
ously,  but  no  one  has  died  of  hunger,  or  is  likely  to 
die  ;  and  then,  how  animating  are  our  prospects  !  Large 
supplies  are  at  Deposit,  and  already  are  officers  dis 
patched  to  hasten  them  on.  Wagons  are  on  the  way ; 
a  large  number  of  beeves  are  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
detachments  are  out  to  bring  them  in.  All  these  re 
sources  can  not  fail.  I  have  no  wish  to  starve  you — 
none  to  deceive  you.  Stay  contentedly  ;  and  if  supplies 
do  not  arrive  in  two  days,  we  will  all  march  back  to- 


g4  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

gether,  and  throw  the  blame  of  our  failure  where  it 
should  properly  lie.  Until  then  we  certainly  have  the 
means  of  subsisting;  and  if  we  are  compelled  to  bear 
privations,  let  us  remember  that  they  are  borne  for  our 
country,  and  are  not  greater  than  many,  perhaps  most, 
armies  have  been  compelled  to  endure.  I  have  called 
you  together  to  tell  you  my  feelings  and  my  wishes. 
This  evening  think  on  them  seriously,  and  let  me  know 
yours  in  the  morning." 

The  officers  returned  to  their  quarters  and  consulted 
with  the  troops.  On  this  occasion,  whether  from  a  spirit 
of  rivalry  or  the  sense  of  duty,  the  militia  proved  more 
tractable  than  the  volunteers ;  for,  on  the  return  of  the 
officers  to  Jackson's  tent,  the  officers  of  the  volunteer 
regiments  reported  that  nothing  short  of  an  immediate 
return  to  the  settlements  could  prevent  the  forcible  de 
parture  of  their  men ;  but  the  militia  officers  declared 
the  willingness  of  their  troops  to  remain  long  enough  to 
ascertain  whether  supplies  could  be  obtained.  "  If  they 
can,"  said  they,  "  let  us  proceed  with  the  campaign  ;  if 
not,  let  us  be  marched  back  to  where  they  can  be  pro 
cured." 

The  general  thought  it  best  to  take  both  bodies  at 
their  word.  He  sent  one  regiment  of  volunteers  to  meet 
the  coming  provisions,  ordering  them  to  return  with  them 
as  an  escort.  The  other  volunteer  regiment,  shamed  by 
the  superior  fortitude  of  the  militia,  agreed  to  stay  two 
days  longer;  and  thus  the  general  gained  a  brief  respite 
from  his  torturing  solicitude.  These  departing  volun 
teers  were  the  very  men  whom  Jackson  had  refused  to 
abandon  at  Natchez,  even  at  the  command  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  and  for  whose  safe  return  he  had  pledged  and 
risked  his  fortune.  That  they  should  have  been  the  first, 
in  his  sore  perplexity,  to  abandon  him,  was  an  event 
which  gave  him  the  most  acute  mortification. 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


95 


The  two  days  passed.  No  provisions  arrived.  The 
militia  demanded  the  prompt  fulfillment  of  the  general's 
promise.  He  was  now  in  the  dilemma  that  Columbus 
would  have  been  in  if  land  had  not  been  descried  in  three 
days.  Overwhelmed  with  despondency,  he  lifted  up  his 
hands  and  exclaimed,  after  long  brooding  over  his  situa 
tion,  "  If  only  two  men  will  remain  with  me,  I  will  never 
abandon  the  post !  "  One  Captain  Gordon  replied,  in  a 
jocular  manner,  "You  have  one,  general;  let  us  see  if 
we  can  not  find  another."  He  set  about  seeking  volun 
teers,  and,  aided  by  the  general's  staff,  soon  obtained 
the  names  of  one  hundred  and  nine  men  who  agreed  to 
remain  and  defend  the  fort.  Rejoicing  at  this  result, 
the  general  left  Fort  Strother  in  their  charge,  and 
marched  himself,  with  the  rest  of  the  troops,  toward 
Fort  Deposit,  upon  the  explicit  understanding  that,  hav 
ing  met  the  expected  provisions,  and  having  satisfied 
their  hunger,  they  were  to  return  with  the  provision 
train  to  Fort  Strother  and  proceed  against  the  enemy. 
It  was  to  insure  the  performance  of  this  engagement 
that  he  commanded  them  in  person. 

Away  they  marched,  haggard  and  hungry,  but  in 
high  spirits,  and  praying  Heaven  that  they  might  not 
meet  the  coming  supplies — so  desperate  was  their  desire 
to  return  home.  To  Jackson's  inexpressible  joy,  and  to 
the  dismay  of  his  troops,  they  had  not  marched  more 
than  twelve  miles  before  they  saw  approaching  them  a 
drove  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  cattle.  Halt,  kill,  and 
eat,  was  the  word.  The  slaughtering,  the  cooking,  and 
the  devouring  were  quickly  accomplished;  and  the  army, 
filled  with  beef  and  valor,  felt  itself  able  to  cope  even 
with  General  Jackson.  To  return  to  Fort  Strother  was 
the  furthest  from  their  thoughts.  When  the  order  to 
return  was  given,  the  general  himself  was  not  in  the 
immediate  presence  of  the  troops,  and  the  order  was  not 


96  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

obeyed.  One  company  moved  off  on  the  homeward 
road,  had  gone  some  distance,  and  were  about  to  be 
followed  by  others,  when  word  was  brought  to  Jackson 
of  the  mutiny.  Followed  by  his  staff  and  a  few  faithful 
friends,  he  galloped  in  pursuit,  and  came  by  a  detour  to 
a  part  of  the  road  a  little  in  advance  of  the  deserters, 
where  he  found  General  Coffee  and  a  small  force.  Form 
ing  these  across  the  road,  he  ordered  them  to  fire  upon 
the  deserters  if  they  should  persist  in  their  attempt  to 
leave.  On  coming  up,  the  homesick  gentlemen  gave 
one  glance  at  the  fiery  general  and  the  opposing  force, 
and  fled  precipitately  to  their  stations. 

The  manner,  appearance,  and  language  of  General 
Jackson  on  occasions  like  this  were  literally  terrific. 
Few  common  men  could  stand  before  the  ferocity  of  his 
aspect  and  the  violence  of  his  words.  On  the  present 
occasion,  I  presume  that  the  mutineers  were  put  to 
flight  as  much  by  the  terrible  aspect  of  the  general  as 
by  the  armed  men  who  were  with  him.  We  can  fancy 
the  scene — Jackson  in  advance  of  Coffee's  men,  his 
grizzled  hair  bristling  up  from  his  forehead,  his  face  as 
red  as  fire,  his  eyes  sparkling  and  flashing;  roaring  out 
with  the  voice  of  a  Stentor  and  the  energy  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  "By  the  immaculate  God  !  I'll  blow  the  damned 
villains  to  eternity  if  they  advance  another  step !  " 

Trusting  that  the  men  would  now  do  their  duty,  the 
general  went  among  them,  leaving  General  Coffee  and 
his  own  staff  to  proceed  with  the  preparations  for  de 
parture.  He  found  almost  the  whole  brigade  infected 
and  on  the  point  of  moving  toward  home.  Upon  the 
instant,  he  resolved  to  prevent  this  or  perish  in  the  path 
before  them.  He  seized  a  musket  and  rode  a  few  paces 
in  advance  of  the  troops.  His  left  arm  was  still  in  a 
sling.  Leaning  his  musket  on  his  horse's  neck,  he  swore 
he  would  shoot  the  first  maa  that  attempted  to  proceed. 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


97 


Meanwhile,  General  Coffee  and  Major  Reid,  suspecting 
that  something  extraordinary  was  occurring,  ran  up,  and 
found  their  general  in  this  attitude,  with  the  column  of 
mutineers  standing  in  sullen  silence  before  him,  not  a 
man  daring  to  stir  a  foot  forward.  Placing  themselves 
by  his  side,  they  awaited  the  result  with  intense  anxiety. 
Gradually  a  few  of  the  troops,  who  were  still  faithful, 
were  collected  behind  the  general,  armed,  and  resolved 
to  use  their  arms  in  his  support.  For  some  minutes  the 
column  of  mutineers  stood  firm  to  their  purpose,  and  it 
only  needed  one  man  bold  enough  to  advance  to  bring 
on  a  bloody  scene.  They  wavered,  however,  at  length 
abandoned  their  purpose,  and  agreed  to  return  to  their 
duty.  It  afterward  appeared  that  the  musket  which 
figured  so  effectually  in  this  scene  was  too  much  out  of 
order  to  be  discharged  ! 

The  troops  were  not  in  the  highest  spirits  nor  in  the 
most  amiable  humor  as  they  marched  back  to  Fort 
Strother  that  afternoon.  Yet  they  marched  back,  and 
the  frontiers  were  still  safe.  Jackson  did  not  return 
with  them,  but  proceeded  to  Fort  Deposit,  to  inspect 
that  post  and  personally  hasten  forward  supplies.  Pro 
digious  exertions  were  now  put  forth.  Major  Lewis 
surpassed  himself.  Two  hundred  pack-horses  and  forty 
wagons  were  taken  into  service  by  him.  From  this 
time  the  operations  of  the  army  were  not  seriously  im 
peded  by  the  want  of  supplies.  News  now  came  that 
the  measures  so  hastily  adopted  by  the  State  of  Tennes 
see  had  been  approved  by  the  Government  at  Washing 
ton,  and  that  the  whole  force  employed  had  been  re 
ceived  into  the  service  of  the  United  States.  Jackson 
rejoined  his  division  in  high  spirits,  and  was  rejoiced  to 
find  that  the  works  at  Fort  Strother  had  been  vigorously 
carried  on  in  his  absence.  Nothing  seemed  now  to  op 
pose  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  A  few  swift 


98  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

marches,  a  few  well-fought  engagements,  and  the  troops 
might  return  home,  the  general  thought,  to  receive  the 
applause  of  the  State  and  the  nation.  Ordering  General 
Cocke  to  join  him  at  Fort  Strother,  with  the  troops 
from  East  Tennessee,  he  expected  nothing  but  to  renew 
the  contest  upon  their  arrival. 

But  the  general  was  reckoning  without  his  army. 
The  volunteers,  penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  discontent, 
soon  provided  themselves  with  a  new  argument  for 
abandoning  the  service.  The  first  days  of  December 
were  now  passing.  It  was  on  the  loth  of  December, 
1812,  that  these  volunteers  had  entered  into  service, 
engaging,  as  they  said,  to  serve  one  year.  They  ac 
cordingly  made  no  secret  of  their  intention  to  leave  the 
camp  on  the  loth  of  December,  1813.  But  they  were 
now  reckoning  without  their  general,  who  recalled  to 
their  recollection  that  they  had  engaged  to  serve  one 
year  in  two !  They  had  been  subject  to  the  call  of  the 
Government  for  a  year,  but  for  more  than  half  of  that 
period  they  had  been  at  home,  pursuing  their  own  af 
fairs.  Nothing  short,  maintained  the  general,  of  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days  of  actual  service  in  the 
field  could  release  them  from  their  obligation  before  the 
loth  of  December,  1814. 

Such  was  the  new  issue  between  the  general  and  the 
volunteers.  It  was  warmly  argued,  with  the  inevitable 
effect  of  confirming  each  in  the  opinion  that  accorded 
with  his  desire.  The  general  was  clear  in  the  belief  that 
he  was  in  the  right ;  but  he  seems,  from  the  beginning 
of  this  contest,  to  have  seen  that  it  was  useless  to  at 
tempt  new  enterprises  unless  seconded  by  the  alacrity 
of  his  men.  Therefore,  while  firmly  resisting  the  de 
parture  of  the  troops,  he  saw  the  necessity  of  procuring 
new  levies  from  the  State,  and  to  this  object  devoted  his 
energies.  General  Roberts,  Colonel  Carroll,  and  Major 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED. 


99 


Searcy,  officers  high  in  his  confidence,  were  dispatched 
to  Tennessee  to  hasten  the  assembling  of  a  new  army ; 
while  Jackson  wrote  letter  upon  letter  to  influential 
friends,  urging  them  to  aid  the  cause  by  personal 
efforts. 

But  to  raise  a  new  force  and  march  it  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  into  the  Indian  country  was  necessarily  a 
work  of  considerable  time,  during  which  we  see  the  gen 
eral — some  of  his  best  officers  away  recruiting,  and  his 
right  arm,  General  Coffee,  sick  at  Huntsville — contend 
ing  almost  alone  with  a  fractious  soldiery.  Defeated 
in  their  previous  attempts  at  forcible  departure,  these 
men  now  tried  to  move  their  commander  by  argument 
and  entreaty.  A  formal  letter  from  one  of  the  colonels, 
which  Jackson  received  a  few  days  before  the  dreaded 
loth  of  December,  expressed  the  feelings  of  the  troops. 
It  made  known  to  him  that  the  whole  body  of  volun 
teers  retained  the  unalterable  opinion  that  they  would 
be  entitled  to  a  legal  release  on  the  loth.  "  They 
therefore  look  to  their  general,  who  hokiS  their  confi 
dence,  for  an  honorable  discharge  on  that  day,  and 
that  in  every  respect  he  will  see  that  justice  be  done 
them." 

An  appeal  like  this  was  harder  for  a  man  of  Jack 
son's  cast  of  character  to  resist  than  armed  mutiny. 
He  had  no  choice  but  to  resist  it.  It  was  essential  to 
the  safety  of  the  frontiers  that  these  men  should  remain 
in  service,  at  least  until  they  could  be  relieved  by  other 
troops.  Jackson's  reply  to  this  letter  was  moderate  and 
unanswerable. 

"  The  moment,"  said  he,  4<  it  is  signified  to  me  by 
any  competent  authority,  even  by  the  Governor  of 
Tennessee,  to  whom  I  have  written  on  the  subject,  or 
by  General  Pinckney,  who  is  now  appointed  to  the 
command,  that  the  volunteers  may  be  exonerated  from 


100  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

further  service,  that  moment  I  will  pronounce  it  with 
the  greatest  satisfaction.  I  have  only  the  power  of  pro 
nouncing  a  discharge — not  of  giving  it — in  any  case  ; 
a  distinction  which  I  would  wish  should  be  borne  in  mind. 
Already  have  I  sent  to  raise  volunteers,  on  my  own  re 
sponsibility,  to  complete  a  campaign  which  has  been  so 
happily  begun,  and  thus  far  so  fortunately  prosecuted. 
The  moment  they  arrive — and  I  am  assured  that,  fired  by 
our  exploits,  they  will  hasten  in  crowds  on  the  first  intima 
tion  that  we  need  their  services — they  will  be  substi 
tuted  in  the  place  of  those  who  are  discontented  here. 
The  latter  will  then  be  permitted  to  return  to  their 
homes,  with  all  the  honor  which  under  such  circum 
stances  they  can  carry  along  with  them.  But  I  still 
cherish  the  hope  that  their  dissatisfaction  and  com 
plaints  have  been  greatly  exaggerated.  I  can  not,  must 
not  believe,  that  the  *  Volunteers  of  Tennessee,'  a  name 
ever  dear  to  fame,  will  disgrace  themselves,  and  a 
country  which  they  have  honored,  by  abandoning  her 
standard  as  mutineers  and  deserters;  but  should  I  be 
disappointed,  and  compelled  to  resign  this  pleasing  hope, 
one  thing  I  will  not  resign — my  duty.  Mutiny  and 
sedition,  so  long  as  I  possess  the  power  of  quelling  them, 
shall  be  put  down ;  and  even  when  left  destitute  of  this, 
I  will  still  be  found  in  the  last  extremity  endeavoring 
to  discharge  the  duty  I  owe  my  country  and  myself." 

The  afternoon  of  the  Qth  ended.  The  frenzy  of  the 
men  to  return  was  such  that  they  were  determined  not 
even  to  wait  for  the  morning,  but  to  march  at  the  very 
moment  their  last  day's  service  had  been  rendered.  Jack 
son  was  in  his  tent,  not  anticipating  a  movement  that 
evening,  when  an  officer  suddenly  entered  and  informed 
him  that  the  whole  brigade  was  in  mutiny  and  prepar 
ing  to  march  off  in  a  body.  He  dashed  upon  paper  the 
following  order:  "The  commanding  general  being  in- 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED.  IOI 

formed  that  an  actual  mutiny  exists  in  the  camp,  all 
officers  and  soldiers  are  commanded  to  put  it  down. 
The  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  First  Brigade  will  with 
out  delay  parade  on  the  west  side  of  the  fort,  and  await 
further  orders." 

He  further  ordered  the  artillery  company,  with  their 
two  small  pieces  of  cannon,  to  take  position  in  front  and 
rear,  and  the  militia  to  be  drawn  up  on  an  eminence 
commanding  the  road  upon  which  the  volunteers  in 
tended  to  march.  These  orders  were  obeyed  with  sur 
prising  alacrity,  for  Jackson  was  now  in  that  mood  that 
men  felt  it  perilous  to  resist.  The  general  mounted  his 
horse  and  rode  up  to  the  line  of  volunteers,  as  they 
stood  along  the  western  side  of  the  fort,  silent,  sullen, 
and  determined.  He  broke  at  once  into  an  impassioned 
yet  not  angry  address.  He  praised  their  former  good 
conduct.  He  dwelt  upon  the  disgrace  that  would  fall 
upon  themselves  and  their  families  if  they  should  carry 
home  with  them  the  name  of  mutineers  and  deserters. 
Never  should  they  do  it  but  by  passing  over  his  dead 
body  !  He  would  do  his  duty  at  any  cost ;  ay,  even  if 
he  perished  there  before  them,  dying  honorably  at  his 
post.  "Re-enforcements,"  said  he,  " are  preparing  to 
hasten  to  my  assistance;  it  can  not  be  long  before  they 
arrive.  I  am,  too,  in  daily  expectation  of  receiving  in 
formation  whether  you  may  be  discharged  or  not. 
Until  then  you  must  not  and  shall  not  retire.  I  have 
done  with  entreaty ;  it  has  been  used  long  enough  ;  I 
will  attempt  it  no  more.  You  must  now  determine 
whether  you  will  go  or  peaceably  remain.  If  you  still 
persist  in  your  determination  to  move  forcibly  off,  the 
point  between  us  shall  soon  be  decided." 

He  paused.  No  one  answered  ;  no  one  moved.  "  I 
demand  an  explicit  answer,"  said  the  general.  There 
was  still  no  response.  He  ordered  the  artillerymen  to 


102  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

be  ready  with  their  matches,  himself  remaining  in  front 
of  the  mutineers  and  within  the  line  of  fire.  The  men 
now  evidently  hesitated.  Whispers  ran  along  the  line 
recommending  a  return  to  duty.  Soon  the  officers  stepped 
forward  and  assured  the  general  that  the  troops  were 
willing  to  remain  at  the  fort  until  the  arrival  of  re-en 
forcements,  or  of  the  answer  to  General  Jackson's  in 
quiries  respecting  their  term  of  service.  The  men  were 
dismissed  to  their  quarters,  and  the  general  was  once 
more  victorious. 

Jackson  had  triumphed  only  so  far  as  to  secure  the 
presence  of  the  men  at  the  post.  He  now  made  an  effort 
to  restore  his  army  to  contentment.  The  near  approach 
of  General  Cocke  having  strengthened  his  position,  he 
resolved  to  permit  the  homesick  brigade  to  march  to 
Tennessee,  there  to  be  dismissed  or  retained  as  the  Gov 
ernor  should  decide. 

General  Cocke  reached  Fort  Strother  on  the  i2th  of 
December  with  his  division  of  two  thousand  men.  Jack 
son  learned,  however,  that  the  term  of  service  of  more 
than  half  of  this  body  was  on  the  very  point  of  expiring, 
and  that  none  of  them  had  longer  than  a  month  to  serve. 
Nor  were  any  of  them  provided  with  clothing  suitable 
for  a  winter  campaign.  Retaining  eight  hundred  of 
these  troops,  who  owed  still  a  month's  service,  Jackson 
ordered  General  Cocke  to  march  the  rest  of  his  division 
back  to  the  settlements,  there  to  dismiss  them,  and  to 
enroll  a  new  force,  properly  provided,  and  engaged  to 
serve  six  months.  He  addressed  the  departing  troops, 
entreating  them  to  join  the  new  army  as  soon  as  they 
had  procured  their  clothing,  and  return  to  him  and  aid 
in  completing  the  conquest  of  the  enemy. 

These  were  dark  days  for  General  Jackson.  Every 
thing  went  wrong.  The  return  of  so  many  troops,  bear 
ing  with  them  the  feelings  they  did,  giving  out  that, 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED.  103 

after  enduring  privations,  gaining  victories,  and  holding 
the  savages  in  check  for  two  months,  they  had  been  re 
fused  an  honorable  dismissal  and  sent  home  almost  in 
disgrace,  threw  a  damper  upon  the  efforts  to  raise  new 
men  and  spread  discontent  among  those  already  engaged. 
Even  the  horsemen  of  General  Coffee,  who  had  been 
allowed  to  leave  Fort  Strother  for  a  while  to  recruit 
their  horses  at  home,  could  not  be  induced  to  return  to 
duty.  Assembling  at  the  call  of  the  gallant  Coffee,  they 
heard  the  tale  of  the  returning  troops,  caught  their  spirit, 
and  became  mutinous,  riotous,  and  unmanageable.  At 
length  they  broke  away  in  a  tumultuous  mass  toward 
home.  General  Coffee  galloped  in  pursuit,  accompanied 
by  the  eloquent  Blackburn,  and  both  addressed  the  fugi 
tives  with  all  the  persuasive  energy  of  which  they  were 
capable.  But  in  vain.  Nearly  to  a  man  the  cavalry 
brigade  rode  away,  rioting  and  wasting  as  they  went, 
and  were  seen  as  an  organized  body  no  more. 

Affairs  were  little  better  at  Jackson's  own  camp.  He 
had  fourteen  hundred  men  at  Fort  Strother,  of  whom 
eight  hundred  would  be  free  to  return  home  in  four 
weeks.  The  remaining  six  hundred  were  militia  who 
had  been  called  out  upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  Fort 
Mims,  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature  which,  most  unfor 
tunately,  did  not  specify  any  time  of  service.  Three 
months,  said  the  militia,  is  the  term  established  by  King 
Precedent.  By  no  means,  replied  Jackson  ;  the  omission 
in  the  act  must  be  supplied  by  the  phrase  for  the  war. 
The  militia  were  summoned,  he  maintained,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  avenging  Fort  Mims  and  conquering  a  lasting 
peace.  These  objects  accomplished,  the  work  for  which 
the  troops  were  engaged  would  be  done,  and  they  would 
be  entitled  to  an  honorable  discharge ;  but  not  till  then. 

Here  were  the  elements  of  new  discontents  and  new 
mutinies.  The  three  months  would  expire  on  the  4th  of 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

January,  and  already  the  latter  half  of  December  was 
gliding  away.  Thus,  in  two  weeks  Jackson  was  threat 
ened  with  the  loss  of  six  hundred  of  his  troops,  and  in 
four  weeks  the  remaining  eight  hundred  would  certainly 
depart.  The  campaign  was  falling  to  pieces  in  every 
direction.  Jackson's  military  career  seemed  about  to 
close  in  disgrace,  and  the  glory  of  the  Tennessee  volun 
teers  to  be  extinguished  forever.  But  this  was  not  all. 
Disaster  menaced  every  assailable  portion  of  the  South 
west.  Letters  came  from  General  Pinckney,  the  chief 
in  command  in  that  region,  ordering  General  Jackson  to 
hold  all  his  posts,  since  it  had  become  a  matter  of  the 
first  national  importance  to  deprive  the  British  of  their 
Indian  allies. 

How  anxiously,  in  such  circumstances,  General  Jack 
son  looked  for  news  from  Tennessee  may  be  imagined. 
Help  from  that  quarter  alone  could  save  him,  and  that 
help  he  had  implored  from  Governor  Blount,  who  alone 
could  grant  it.  The  expected  dispatch  from  Nashville 
reached  Fort  Strother  at  length,  and  proved  to  be  a 
most  disheartening  response  to  Jackson's  entreaties. 
The  Governor  feared  to  transcend  his  authority.  Hav 
ing  called  out  all  the  troops  authorized  by  Congress  and 
the  Legislature,  what  could  he  do  more  ?  The  campaign 
had  failed,  he  said,  and  he  advised  General  Jackson  to 
give  up  a  struggle  which  could  have  no  favorable  issue, 
and  return  home ;  to  wait  until  the  General  Government 
should  provide  the  means  requisite  for  carrying  on  the 
war  with  vigor. 

Not  for  one  instant  did  Jackson  concur  in  this  view 
of  the  situation.  He  was  of  that  temper  which  gained 
new  determination  from  other  men's  despair.  The  last 
ounce  stiffened  his  back,  but  did  not  break  it.  He  went 
to  his  tent  and  wrote  to  the  Governor  the  best  letter  he 
ever  wrote  in  his  life — one  of  those  historical  epistles 


THE   CREEK   COUNTRY   INVADED.  105 

which  do  the  work  of  a  campaign  in  rolling  back  the  tide 
of  events.  This  eloquent  epistle  convinced  and  roused 
Governor  Blount.  He  forthwith  ordered  a  new  levy  of 
twenty-five  hundred  men  to  rendezvous  at  Fayetteville 
on  the  28th  of  January,  to  serve  for  three  months,  and 
authorized  General  Cocke  to  obey  Jackson's  order  for 
raising  a  new  division  of  East  Tennesseeans.  The  as 
pect  of  affairs  in  the  State  was  immediately  changed. 
The  noise  of  preparation  was  everywhere  heard.  There 
was  a  furbishing  of  arms  and  a  tramp  of  marching  men 
in  all  quarters  of  the  State.  In  a  few  days  the  honor 
able  scruples  of  the  Governor  were  completely  set  at 
rest  by  a  dispatch  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  which  more 
than  covered  all  he  had  done,  and  sanctioned  any  fur 
ther  requisition  of  men  which  he  might  deem  necessary. 
If  Jackson  could  but  hold  his  position  a  few  weeks 
longer,  there  was  every  prospect  of  his  being  able  once 
more  to  act  with  efficiency. 

From  the  middle  of  December  to  the  middle  of  Jan 
uary  General  Jackson  was  called  upon  to  endure  every 
description  of  mortification  and  difficulty  known  to  bor 
der  warfare.  On  the  4th  of  January  his  six  hundred 
militia,  in  spite  of  warning  and  entreaty,  and  after  scenes 
of  violence  similar  to  those  already  related,  marched 
homeward.  On  the  i4th,  the  eight  hundred  of  General 
Cocke's  division,  whose  term  of  service  then  expired, 
were  earnestly  besought  to  remain,  if  only  for  twenty 
days.  The  savages  were  in  motion  again,  and  threat 
ened  the  frontiers  of  Georgia.  Jackson  implored  these 
men  to  make  one  excursion  into  the  enemy's  country,  to 
strike  one  blow  at  them,  for  the  purpose  of  at  least 
diverting  or  dividing  their  force  and  giving  an  easier 
victory  to  the  Georgia  troops.  But  no ;  their  minds 
were  set  resolutely  homeward,  and  away  they  marched, 
leaving  him  with  a  mere  handful  of  men  to  guard  the 


I06  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

post.  Moreover,  the  new  recruits  could  not  be  induced 
to  engage  for  six  months.  Colonel  Carroll,  rather  than 
bring  back  no  men,  had  enlisted  a  body  of  horse  for 
two  months  only,  and  General  Roberts  returned  with 
infantry  engaged  for  three.  These  men  General  Jack 
son  was  obliged  to  accept,  or  be  left  alone  in  the 
wilderness. 

On  the  i$th  of  January,  then,  we  find  the  general  at 
Fort  Strother  with  nine  hundred  raw  recruits,  who  had 
come  out  with  the  expectation  of  making  a  single  raid 
into  the  Indian  territory  and  then  to  return  to  narrate 
their  exploits  and  draw  their  pay.  Such  troops  it  is 
dangerous  to  keep  in  inaction  for  a  single  week.  The 
regular  levies  from  Tennessee  could  not  be  expected  for 
a  month  to  come.  The  necessity  of  striking  a  blow  at 
the  exulting  enemy  was  pressing.  In  these  circum 
stances,  Jackson,  with  the  daring  prudence  that  charac 
terized  his  career,  resolved  upon  instant  action,  and 
gave  the  order  to  prepare  for  marching  against  the 
foe. 

"  On  the  evening  of  the  2oth  I  encamped  at  Enota- 
chopco,  a  small  Hillabee  village  about  twelve  miles  from 
Emuckfau.  Here  I  began  to  perceive  very  plainly  how 
little  knowledge  my  spies  had  of  the  country,  of  the  sit 
uation  of  the  enemy,  or  of  the  distance  I  was  from  them. 
The  insubordination  of  the  new  troops,  and  the  want  of 
skill  in  most  of  their  officers,  also  became  more  and 
more  apparent.  But  their  ardor  to  meet  the  enemy  was 
not  diminished,  and  I  had  sure  reliance  upon  the  guards, 
and  upon  the  company  of  old  volunteer  officers,  and 
upon  the  spies,  in  all  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five. 
My  wrshes  and  my  duty  remained  united,  and  I  was  de 
termined  to  effect,  if  possible,  the  objects  for  which  the 
excursion  had  been  principally  undertaken. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  2ist  I  marched  from  Enota- 


THE   CREEK  COUNTRY   INVADED.  JQJ 

chopco  as  direct  as  I  could  for  the  bend  of  the  Talla- 
poosa,  and  about  two  made  a  swift  incursion  into  the 
enemy's  country,  during  which  hard  blows  were  dealt 
them,  keeping  the  restless  men  loyal  to  their  duty,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  the  next  and  decisive  operations 
of  the  war." 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE    FINISHING    BLOW. 

THE  excursion  over,  and  the  new  levies  from  Tennes 
see  approaching,  Jackson  dismissed  his  victorious  troops, 
whose  term  of  service  was  about  to  expire.  He  bade 
them  farewell  in  an  address  abounding  in  kind  and  flat 
tering  expressions;  and  they  left  him  feeling  all  that 
soldiers  usually  feel  toward  the  general  who  has  led 
them  to  victory. 

The  return  of  these  troops,  animated  by  such  senti 
ments,  gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  cause  in  Tennessee, 
and  fired  the  troops  who  were  on  their  way  to  the  seat 
of  war  with  new  zeal.  From  all  quarters  came  volun 
teers,  hurrying  toward  the  standard  of  the  successful  gen 
eral,  whose  prospects  now  brightened  with  every  day's 
dispatches.  On  the  3d  of  February  came  news  that  two 
thousand  East  Tennesseeans  were  far  on  their  way  to 
join  him.  A  day  or  two  after,  a  dispatch  informed  the 
general  that  nearly  as  many  West  Tennessee  troops  had 
reached  Huntsville  and  waited  his  orders.  On  the  6th 
marched  into  Fort  Strother  the  Thirty-ninth  Regiment  of 
United  States  infantry,  six  hundred  strong,  under  Colo 
nel  Williams — a  most  important  acquisition.  Into  this 
regiment  one  Sam  Houston  had  recently  enlisted  as  a 
private  soldier,  and  made  his  way  to  the  rank  of  ensign — 
the  same  Sam  Houston  who  was  afterward  President  of 
Texas  and  Senator  of  the  United  States. 

In  addition  to   this  re-enforcement,  there  came  in, 


THE   FINISHING  BLOW.  109 

soon  after,  a  part  of  General  Coffee's  old  brigade  of 
mounted  men,  and  a  troop  of  dragoons  from  East  Ten 
nessee.  The  Choctaw  Indians  now  openly  joined  the 
peace  party,  and  asked  orders  from  General  Jackson. 
There  was  no  lack  of  men  of  any  description.  Long 
before  February  closed  Jackson  was  at  the  head  of  an 
army  of  five  thousand  men,  all  within  a  few  days'  march 
of  Fort  Strother,  waiting  only  till  the  general  could  accu 
mulate  twenty  days'  rations  to  march  in  and  strike,  as 
they  hoped,  a  finishing  blow  at  the  enemy. 

Six  weeks  of  intense  labor  on  the  part  of  the  general 
and  his  army  were  required  to  complete  the  preparations 
for  the  decisive  movement.  The  middle  of  March  had 
arrived.  The  various  divisions  of  the  army  were  assem 
bled  at  Fort  Strother,  and  the  requisite  quantity  of  pro 
visions  had  been  accumulated.  A  system  of  expresses 
had  been  established  for  the  conveyance  of  information 
to  General  Pinckney  and  Governor  Blount.  With  much 
difficulty,  one  man  had  been  found  competent  to  beat 
the  ordinary  calls  on  the  drum,  and  this  one  drum  was 
the  sole  music  of  the  army.  Deducting  the  strong 
guards  to  be  left  at  the  posts  already  established,  the 
force  about  to  march  against  the  enemy  amounted  to 
about  three  thousand  men. 

The  attention  of  the  reader  is  now  to  be  directed  to 
a  remarkable  "  bend "  of  the  river  Tallapoosa,  about 
fifty-five  miles  from  Fort  Strother,  the  scene,  for  so  many 
weeks,  of  General  Jackson's  strenuous  endeavors. 

The  Tallapoosa  and  the  Coosa  are  the  rivers  which 
unite  in  the  southern  part  of  Alabama  and  form  the 
Alabama  River.  The  bend  of  which  we  speak  is  about 
midway  between  the  source  and  the  mouth  of  the  Talla 
poosa.  It  occurs  where  the  stream  is  no£  fordable  during 
the  spring  rains,  but  is  not  wide  enough  to  present  a 
serious  obstacle  to  an  Indian  swimmer.  From  the  shape 


IIO  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

of  this  peninsula  the  Indians  called  it  Tohopeka,  which 
means  horseshoe.  It  contains  a  hundred  acres  of  land, 
since  a  cotton  field.  The  neck,  or  isthmus,  is  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  yards  across.  The  ground  rises 
somewhat  from  the  edge  of  the  water.  It  was  a  wild, 
rough  piece  of  ground,  abounding  in  places  which  would 
afford  covert  to  an  Indian  warrior.  At  the  time  of  which 
we  write  the  surrounding  country  for  a  hundred  miles 
or  more  was  a  nearly  unbroken  wilderness  of  forest, 
swamp,  and  cane,  marked  only  by  the  trail  of  wild  beasts 
and  the  "trace  "  of  wild  men.  As  well  from  its  situation 
as  its  form  this  place  was  entitled  to  be  styled  the  heart 
of  the  Indian  country. 

Here  it  was  that  the  evil  genius  of  the  Creeks 
prompted  them  to  assemble  the  warriors  of  all  the  tribes 
residing  in  that  vicinity,  to  make  a  stand  against  the 
great  army  with  which,  their  runners  told  them,  General 
Jackson  was  preparing  to  overrun  the  Indian  country. 
The  long  delays  at  Fort  Strother  had  given  them  time 
to  prepare  for  his  reception,  and  they  had  improved  that 
time.  Across  the  neck  of  the  peninsula  they  had  built 
(of  logs)  a  breastwork  of  immense  strength,  pierced  with 
two  rows  of  port-holes.  The  line  of  defense  was  so 
drawn  that  an  approaching  enemy  would  we  exposed 
both  to  a  direct  and  a  raking  fire.  Behind  the  breast 
work  was  a  mass  of  logs  and  brushwood,  such  as  Indians 
delight  to  fight  from.  At  the  bottom  of  the  peninsula, 
near  the  river,  was  a  village  of  huts.  The  banks  of  the 
river  were  fringed  with  the  canoes  of  the  savage  garri 
son,  so  that  they  possessed  the  means  of  retreat  as  well 
as  of  defense.  The  greater  part  of  the  peninsula  was 
still  covered  with  the  primeval  forest.  Within  this  ex 
tensive  fortification  were  assembled  about  nine  hundred 
warriors  of  various  Creek  tribes,  and  about  three  hun 
dred  women  and  children. 


THE  FINISHING  BLOW.  Iir 

The  Indian  force  was  small  to  defend  so  extensive  a 
line  of  fortification.  But  a  variety  of  circumstances 
conspired  to  give  the  savage  garrison  confidence :  such 
as  the  impregnable  strength  of  the  breastwork,  its  pecul 
iar  construction,  the  facilities  afforded  in  the  interior  of 
the  bend  for  the  Indian  mode  of  fighting,  the  partial 
successes  gained  by  the  Indians  at  Emuckfau  and  Eno- 
tachopco — of  which  they  continually  boasted,  averring 
that  they  had  made  "  Captain  Jackson  "  run — and,  above 
all,  the  positive  and  reiterated  predictions  of  their  proph 
ets.  Three  of  the  most  famous  of  the  prophets  were 
there,  performing  their  incantations  day  and  night,  and 
keeping  alive  that  religious  fury  which  had  played  so 
great  a  part  in  previous  battles.  And  besides,  in  case 
the  breastwork  was  carried  and  the  bend  overrun,  how 
easy  to  rush  to  the  canoes  and  paddle  across  the  river, 
laughing  at  their  baffled  assailants  as  they  vanished  into 
the  woods  on  the  opposite  shore !  So  thought  the 
Creeks. 

Jackson  was  eleven  days  in  marching  his  army  the 
fifty-five  miles  of  untrodden  wilderness  that  lay  between 
Fort  Strother  and  the  Horseshoe  Bend  of  the  Tallapoosa. 
Roads  had  to  be  cut,  the  Coosa  explored,  boats  waited 
for  and  rescued  from  the  shoals,  high  ridges  crossed, 
Fort  Williams  built  and  garrisoned  to  keep  open  the  line 
of  communication,  and  numerous  other  difficulties  over 
come,  before  he  could  penetrate  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
bend.  It  was  early  in  the  morning  of  March  2yth  that, 
with  an  army  diminished  by  garrisoning  the  posts  to 
two  thousand  men,  he  reached  the  scene  and  prepared 
to  commence  operations. 

Perceiving  at  one  glance  that  the  Indians  had  sim 
ply  penned  themselves  up  for  slaughter,  his  first  meas 
ure  was  to  send  General  Coffee  with  all  the  mounted 
men  and  friendly  Indians  to  cross  the  river  two  miles 


112  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

below,  where  it  was  fordable,  to  take  a  position  on  the 
bank  opposite  the  line  of  canoes,  and  so  cut  off  the  re 
treat.  This  was  promptly  executed  by  General  Coffee, 
who  soon  announced  by  a  preconcerted  signal  that  he  had 
reached  the  station  assigned  him.  Jackson  then  planted 
his  two  pieces  of  cannon — one  a  three,  the  other  a  six- 
pounder — upon  an  eminence  eighty  yards  from  the  near 
est  point  of  the  breastwork,  whence,  at  half-past  ten  in 
the  morning,  he  opened  fire  upon  it.  His  sharpshoot 
ers  also  were  drawn  up  near  enough  to  get  an  occasional 
shot  at  an  Indian  within  the  bend.  A  steady  fire  of  can 
non  and  rifles  was  kept  up  in  front  for  two  hours  with 
out  producing  any  hopeful  beginning  of  a  breach  in  the 
breastwork.  The  little  cannon  balls  buried  themselves 
in  the  logs  or  in  the  earth  between  them  without  doing 
decisive  harm.  The  Indians  whooped  in  derision  as 
they  struck  and  disappeared. 

Meanwhile  General  Coffee,  not  content  to  remain  in 
active,  hit  upon  a  line  of  conduct  that  proved  eminently 
effective.  He  sent  some  of  the  best  swimmers  among 
his  force  of  friendly  Indians  across  the  river  to  cut 
loose  and  bring  away  the  canoes  of  the  beleaguered 
Creeks.  That  done,  he  used  the  canoes  for  sending  over 
a  party  of  men  under  Colonel  Morgan,  with  orders  first 
to  set  fire  to  the  cluster  of  huts  at  the  bottom  of  the 
bend,  and  then  to  rush  forward  and  attack  the  Indians 
behind  the  breastwork. 

This  was  gallantly  done.  The  force  under  Jackson 
soon  perceived  from  the  smoke  of  the  burning  huts  and 
from  the  rattling  fire  behind  the  breastwork  that  Gen 
eral  Coffee  was  up  and  doing.  Soon,  however,  that  fire 
was  observed  to  slacken,  and  it  became  apparent  that 
Morgan's  force  was  too  small  to  do  more  than  distract 
and  divide  the  attention  of  the  assailed.  This,  however, 
alone  was  an  immense  advantage.  Jackson's  men  saw 


THE   FINISHING  BLOW.  113 

it  and  clamored  for  the  order  to  assault.  The  General 
hesitated  many  minutes  before  giving  an  order  that 
would  inevitably  send  so  many  of  his  brave  fellows  to 
their  account,  and  the  issue  of  which  was  doubtful.  The 
order  came  at  length,  and  was  received  with  a  general 
shout. 

The  Thirty-ninth  Regiment,  under  Colonel  Williams, 
and  the  brigade  of  East  Tennesseeans,  under  Colonel 
Bunch,  marched  rapidly  up  to  the  breastwork  and  de 
livered  a  volley  through  the  port-holes.  The  Indians 
returned  the  fire  with  effect,  and,  muzzle  to  muzzle,  the 
combatants  for  a  short  time  contended.  Major  L.  P. 
Montgomery,  of  the  Thirty-ninth,  was  the  first  man  to 
spring  upon  the  breastwork,  where,  calling  upon  his  men 
to  follow,  he  received  a  ball  in  his  head  and  fell  dead 
to  the  ground.  At  that  critical  moment  young  Ensign 
Houston  mounted  the  breastwork.  A  barbed  arrow 
pierced  his  thigh ;  but,  nothing  dismayed,  this  gallant 
youth,  calling  his  comrades  to  follow,  leaped  down 
among  the  Indians  and  soon  cleared  a  space  around  him 
with  his  vigorous  right  arm.  Joined  in  a  moment  by 
parties  of  his  own  regiment,  and  by  large  numbers  of  the 
East  Tennesseeans,  the  breastwork  was  soon  cleared, 
the  Indians  retiring  before  them  into  the  underbrush. 

The  wounded  ensign  sat  down  within  the  fortification 
and  called  a  lieutenant  of  his  company  to  draw  the  ar 
row  from  his  thigh.  Two  vigorous  pulls  at  the  barbed 
weapon  failed  to  extract  it.  In  a  fury  of  pain  and  im 
patience  Houston  cried,  "  Try  again,  and  if  you  fail 
this  time  I  will  smite  you  to  the  earth  !  "  Exerting  all 
his  strength  the  lieutenant  drew  forth  the  arrow,  tearing 
the  flesh  fearfully,  and  causing  an  effusion  of  blood  that 
compelled  the  wounded  man  to  hurry  over  the  breast 
work  to  get  the  wound  bandaged.  While  he  was  lying 
on  the  ground  under  the  surgeon's  hands  the  general 


114  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

rode  up,  and,  recognizing  his  young  acquaintance,  or 
dered  him  not  to  cross  the  breastwork  again.  Houston 
begged  him  to  recall  the  order,  but  the  general  repeated 
it  peremptorily  and  rode  on.  In  a  few  minutes  the  en 
sign  had  disobeyed  the  command  and  was  once  more 
with  his  company  in  the  thick  of  that  long  hand-to-hand 
engagement  which  consumed  the  hours  of  the  afternoon. 

Not  an  Indian  asked  for  quarter,  nor  would  accept 
it  when  offered.  From  behind  trees  and  logs,  from 
clefts  in  the  river's  banks,  from  among  the  burning  huts, 
from  chance  log-piles,  from  temporary  fortifications,  the 
desperate  red  men  fired  upon  the  troops.  A  large  num 
ber  plunged  into  the  river  and  attempted  to  escape  by 
swimming,  but  from  Coffee's  men  on  one  bank  and 
Jackson's  on  the  other  a  hailstorm  of  bullets  flew  over 
the  stream,  and  the  painted  heads  dipped  beneath  its 
blood-stained  ripples.  The  battle  became  at  length  a 
slow,  laborious  massacre.  From  all  parts  of  the  penin 
sula  resounded  the  yells  of  the  savages,  the  shouts  of 
the  assailants,  and  the  reports  of  the  firearms,  while  the 
gleam  of  the  uplifted  tomahawk  was  seen  among  the 
branches. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  afternoon  it  was  observed 
that  a  considerable  number  of  the  Indians  had  found  a 
refuge  under  the  bluffs  of  the  river,  where  a  part  of  the 
breastwork,  the  formation  of  the  ground,  and  the  felled 
trees  gave  them  complete  protection.  Desirous  to  end 
this  horrible  carnage,  Jackson  sent  a  friendly  Indian  to 
announce  to  them  that  their  lives  should  be  spared  if 
they  would  surrender.  They  were  silent  for  a  moment, 
as  if  in  consultation,  and  then  answered  the  summons 
by  a  volley  which  sent  the  interpreter  bleeding  from  the 
scene.  The  cannon  were  now  brought  up  and  played 
upon  the  spot  without  effect.  Jackson  then  called  for 
volunteers  to  charge,  but  the  Indians  were  so  well  posted 


THE  FINISHING  BLOW.  115 

that  for  a  minute  no  one  responded  to  the  call.  Ensign 
Houston  again  emerged  into  view  on  this  occasion.  Or 
dering  his  platoon  to  follow,  but  not  waiting  to  see  if 
they  would  follow,  he  rushed  to  the  overhanging  bank 
which  sheltered  the  foe  and  through  openings  of  which 
they  were  firing.  Over  this  mine  of  desperate  savages 
he  paused  and  looked  back  for  his  men.  At  that  mo 
ment  he  received  two  balls  in  his  right  shoulder ;  his  arm 
fell  powerless  to  his  side,  he  staggered  out  of  the  fire 
and  lay  down  totally  disabled.  His  share  in  that  day's 
work  was  done. 

Several  valuable  lives  were  afterward  lost  in  vain  en 
deavors  to  dislodge  the  enemy  from  their  well-chosen 
covert.  As  the  sun  was  going  down,  fire  was  set  to  the 
logs  and  underbrush,  which  overspread  and  surrounded 
this  last  refuge  of  the  Creeks.  The  place  soon  grew  too 
hot  to  hold  them.  Singly,  and  by  twos  and  threes,  they 
ran  from  the  ravine,  and  fell  as  they  ran  before  the  fire 
of  a  hundred  riflemen  on  the  watch  for  the  starting  of 
the  game. 

The  carnage  lasted  as  long  as  there  was  light  enough 
to  see  a  skulking  or  a  flying  enemy.  It  was  impossible 
to  spare.  The  Indians  fought  after  they  were  wounded, 
and  gave  wounds  to  men  who  sought  to  save  their  lives, 
for  they  thought  that  if  spared  they  would  be  reserved 
only  for  a  more  painful  death.  Night  fell  at  last,  and 
recalled  the  troops  from  their  bloody  work  to  gather 
wounded  comrades  and  minister  to  their  necessities.  It 
was  a  night  of  horror.  Along  the  banks  of  the  river, 
all  around  the  bend,  Indians — the  wounded  and  the  un 
hurt — were  crouching  in  the  clefts,  under  the  brushwood, 
and  in  some  instances  under  the  heaps  of  slain,  watch 
ing  for  an  opportunity  to  escape.  Many  did  escape, 
and  some  lay  until  the  morning,  fearing  to  attempt 
it.  One  noted  chief,  covered  with  wounds,  took  to  the 


H6  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

water  in  the  evening  and  lay  beneath  the  surface,  draw 
ing  his  breath  through  a  hollow  cane  until  it  was  dark 
enough  to  swim  across.  He  escaped,  and  lived  to  tell 
his  story  and  show  his  scars  many  years  after  to  the  his 
torian  of  Alabama,  from  whom  we  have  derived  the  in 
cident.  In  the  morning,  parties  of  the  troops  again 
scoured  the  peninsula  and  ferreted  from  their  hiding- 
places  sixteen  more  warriors,  who,  refusing  still  to  sur 
render,  were  added  to  the  number  of  the  slain. 

Upon  counting  the  dead,  five  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
was  found  to  be  the  number  of  the  fallen  enemy  within 
the  peninsula.  Two  hundred  more,  it  was  computed, 
had  found  a  grave  at  the  bottom  of  the  river.  Many 
more  died  in  the  woods  attempting  to  escape.  Jackson's 
loss  was  fifty-five  killed  and  one  hundred  and  forty-six 
wounded,  of  whom  more  than  half  were  friendly  Indians. 
The  three  prophets  of  the  Creeks,  fantastically  dressed 
and  decorated,  were  found  among  the  dead.  One  of 
them,  while  engaged  in  his  incantations,  had  received  a 
grapeshot  in  his  mouth,  which  killed  him  instantly. 

One  would  have  expected  General  Jackson  to  pause 
in  his  operations  after  such  an  affair  as  that  of  the 
Horseshoe.  Nothing  was  further  from  his  thoughts. 
"  In  war,"  his  maxim  was,  "  till  everything  is  done 
nothing  is  done."  On  the  morning  after  the  battle  he 
began  at  once  to  prepare  for  a  retrograde  movement  as 
far  as  Fort  Williams,  the  fort  which  he  had  built  on  his 
march  from  Fort  Strother.  He  had  brought  with  him 
into  the  heart  of  the  wilderness  but  seven  days'  pro 
visions.  Before  pushing  his  conquests  further,  it  was 
necessary  both  to  procure  supplies  and  place  his  long 
train  of  wounded  in  a  place  of  safety  and  comfort.  He 
was  up  betimes,  therefore,  and  passed  a  busy  morning. 
His  dead  were  sunk  in  the  river,  to  prevent  their  being 
scalped  by  the  returning  savages.  Litters  were  prepared 


THE   FINISHING   BLOW. 


117 


for  the  wounded.  A  brief,  imperfect  account  of  the 
battle  was  dispatched  to  General  Pinckney.  Before  the 
sun  was  many  hours  on  his  course  all  things  were  in 
readiness,  and  the  army  set  out  on  its  return. 

Five  days'  march  brought  them  to  Fort  Williams. 
There  the  wounded  were  cared  for,  the  friendly  Indians 
dismissed,  and  the  troops  publicly  thanked,  praised,  and 
congratulated.  The  praise  of  the  general  was  the  theme 
of  every  tongue. 

Provisions  were  not  too  abundant  there  in  the  wilder 
ness,  and  supplies  were  brought  in  with  incredible  diffi 
culty  and  toil.  Jackson's  next  object  was  to  form  a 
junction  with  the  southern  army  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa,  the  holy  ground  of  the 
Creeks,  which  their  prophets  told  them  no  white  man 
could  tread  and  live.  He  had  been  assured  by  General 
Pinckney  that  as  soon  as  the  junction  of  the  two  armies 
was  effected  all  difficulty  with  regard  to  provisions  would 
be  at  an  end,  as  superabundant  supplies  had  been  pro 
vided  by  the  General  Government.  Moreover,  it  was  on 
this  holy  ground  that  the  only  body  of  Creeks  that  still 
maintained  a  hostile  attitude  were  assembled.  For  five 
days  the  troops  rested  from  their  labors  at  Fort  Williams  ; 
then  they  set  out  on  their  march  through  the  pathless 
wilderness,  leaving  behind  wagons  and  baggage,  each 
man  carrying  eight  days'  provisions  upon  his  back. 
Floods  of  rain,  converting  swamps  into  lakes,  rivulets 
into  rivers,  creeks  into  torrents,  retarded  their  progress, 
and  gave  the  Indians  time  to  disperse.  The  latter  days 
of  April,  however,  found  the  troops  on  the  holy  ground, 
where  a  junction  with  part  of  the  southern  army  was 
effected. 

But  the  war  was  over.  The  power  of  the  Creeks  was 
broken ;  half  their  warriors  were  dead,  the  rest  were 
scattered  and  subdued  in  spirit.  Fort  Mims  was  indeed 
9 


U8  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

avenged.  Jackson's  amazing  celerity  of  movement,  and 
particularly  his  last  daring  plunge  into  the  wilderness, 
and  his  triumph  over  obstacles  that  would  have  deterred 
even  an  Indian  force,  quite  baffled  and  confounded  the 
unhappy  Creeks.  Against  such  a  man  they  felt  it  vain 
to  contend.  The  general  had  no  sooner  reached  the 
holy  ground  and  procured  for  his  tired  and  hungry  men 
the  supplies  they  needed,  than  the  chiefs  began  to  come 
into  his  camp  and  supplicate  for  peace.  His  reply  to 
them  was  brief  and  stern.  They  must  give  proof,  he 
said,  of  their  submission,  by  returning  to  the  north  of 
his  advanced  post — Fort  Williams.  There  they  would 
be  treated  with,  and  the  demands  of  the  Government 
made  known  to  them. 

In  a  few  days  fourteen  of  the  leading  chiefs  had 
given  in  their  submission  and  taken  up  their  sorrowful 
march  toward  the  designated  place.  Those  of  the  fallen 
tribe  who  despaired  of  making  terms,  and  those  whose 
spirit  was  not  yet  completely  crushed,  fled  into  Florida, 
and  there  sowed  the  seed  of  future  wars. 

With  the  establishment  of  Fort  Jackson  in  the  holy 
ground,  at  the  confluence  of  the  two  rivers,  General 
Jackson's  task  was  nearly  done.  For  a  few  days  he  was 
busy  enough  in  receiving  deputations  of  repentant  and 
crestfallen  chiefs,  and  in  sending  out  strong  detach 
ments  of  troops  to  scour  the  country  in  search  of  hostile 
parties,  if  any  such  still  kept  the  field.  No  hostile  parties 
were  found.  The  friendly  Creeks,  however,  gave  some 
trouble  by  their  excess  of  zeal.  Attributing  the  calam 
ities  brought  upon  their  tribe  to  the  massacre  at  Fort 
Mims,  they  were  bent  upon  putting  to  death  every  man 
that  had  taken  part  in  that  scene  of  horrors.  Bodies 
and  single  individuals  of  the  hostile  portion  of  the  tribe 
were  waylaid  and  killed  by  roving  companies  of  their 
own  countrymen.  A  war  of  extermination  would  have 


THE   FINISHING  BLOW. 

ensued,  had  not  General  Jackson,  in  his  decisive  manner, 
announced  that  any  of  the  friendly  party  who  should 
molest  a  Red  Stick  after  he  had  surrendered  and  while 
he  was  obeying  the  orders  of  the  general,  should  be 
treated  as  enemies  of  the  United  States.  This  stayed 
the  work  of  blood,  and  the  Indians  continued  to  repair 
to  the  northern  part  of  Alabama,  which  had  been  assigned 
for  their  temporary  residence.  Fort  Jackson  completed 
the  line  of  posts  which  separated  them  from  the  hos 
tile  Indians,  the  hostile  British,  and  the  sympathizing 
Spaniards  of  Florida. 

In  the  beginning  of  May,  1814,  a  few  days  after  the 
news  of  the  battle  of  the  Horseshoe  reached  Wash 
ington,  a  brigadier-generalship  fell  vacant,  which  the 
President  was  induced  to  offer  to  General  Jackson, 
Before  it  was  known  whether  the  offer  would  be  ac 
cepted,  the  unhappy  misunderstanding  between  the  Sec 
retary  of  War  and  General  William  Henry  Harrison 
resulted  in  the  resignation  of  that  brave  officer  and 
honest  gentleman.  Whether  it  was  the  haste  of  the  Sec 
retary  to  shelve  an  officer  disagreeable  to  him,  or  the 
growing  eclat  of  Jackson's  victories,  or  both  of  these 
causes  together,  that  induced  the  Government  to  accept 
the  resignation  and  offer  the  vacancy  to  Jackson,  is  a 
matter  of  no  importance  now.  Jackson  received  the 
offer  of  the  brigadiership  ;  and  while  he  was  consider 
ing  the  question  of  acceptance  or  rejection,  the  mail  of 
the  day  following  brought  him  the  second  offer,  which 
he  accepted  promptly  and  gladly.  It  was  a  reward  which 
he  desired  and  felt  to  be  due  to  his  standing  and  services. 
The  National  Intelligencer  of  May  31,  1814,  contained 
the  announcement  in  the  usual  form : 

"  Andrew  Jackson,  of  Tennessee,  is  appointed  major- 
general  in  the  army  of  the  United  States,  vice  William 
Henry  Harrison,  resigned." 


120  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

The  emoluments  of  his  new  rank  were  of  importance 
to  General  Jackson,  for  he  was  by  no  means  a  rich  man 
in  1814.  The  pay  of  a  major-general  in  the  army  of  the 
United  States  was  twenty-four  hundred  dollars  a  year, 
with  allowances  for  rations,  forage,  servants,  and  trans 
portation,  that  swelled  the  income  to  an  average  of 
about  six  thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  It  was  never 
less  than  six  thousand  dollars.  The  Legislature  of  Mis 
sissippi  Territory,  about  the  same  time,  voted  General 
Jackson  a  sword,  which  was  the  first  of  the  many  simi 
lar  gifts  bestowed  upon  him  during  his  military  career. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  in  view  of  succeeding  events, 
that  no  less  than  six  generals  had  stood  between  Jackson 
and  the  likelihood  of  his  being  intrusted  with  the  de 
fense  of  the  Southwest.  First,  General  Wilkinson  was 
transferred  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Northwest,  where 
his  failure  was  signal.  Next,  Brigadier-General  Hamp 
ton  resigned.  Third,  Major-General  William  Henry 
Harrison  resigned.  Fourth,  General  Flourney,  who  suc 
ceeded  Wilkinson  at  New  Orleans,  resigned.  Fifth,  Gen 
eral  Howard,  of  Kentucky,  who  was  dispatched  to  suc 
ceed  Flourney,  died  before  reaching  his  post.  Sixth, 
General  Gaines,  sent  from  Washington  in  haste  when 
the  first  alarm  for  New  Orleans  was  felt  by  the  Adminis 
tration,  did  not  arrive  till  all  was  over.  And  all  these 
singular  and  unexpected  changes  occurred  within  the 
space  of  a  very  few  months. 

The  effects  of  Jackson's  eight  months'  service  upon 
his  health  were  permanently  injurious.  In  reading  of 
his  exploits  we  figure  to  ourselves  a  man  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  the  full  tide  of  health.  How  different  was  the 
fact !  From  the  moment  of  his  being  wounded  in  the 
affray  with  the  Bentons  to  the  close  of  the  war  he  was 
so  much  an  invalid  that  a  man  of  less  strength  of  will 
would  probably  have  yielded  to  the  disease  and  spent 


THE   FINISHING   BLOW.  121 

his  days  in  nursing  it.  Chronic  diarrhoea  was  the  form 
which  his  complaint  assumed.  The  slightest  imprudence 
in  eating  or  drinking  brought  on  an  attack,  during 
which  he  suffered  intensely.  While  the  paroxysm  lasted 
he  could  obtain  relief  only  by  sitting  on  a  chair  with  his 
chest  against  the  back  of  it  and  his  arms  dangling  for 
ward.  In  this  position  he  was  sometimes  compelled  to 
remain  for  hours.  It  often  happened  that  he  was  seized 
with  the  familiar  pain  while  on  the  march  through  the 
woods  at  the  head  of  the  troops.  In  the  absence  of 
other  means  of  relief  he  would  have  a  sapling  half  sev 
ered  and  bent  over,  upon  which  he  would  hang  with  his 
arms  downward  till  the  agony  subsided.  The  only 
medicine  that  he  took,  and  his  only  beverage  then,  was 
weak  gin  and  water.  The  reader  is  therefore  to  banish 
from  his  imagination  the  popular  figure  of  a  vigorous 
warrior  galloping  in  the  pride  of  his  strength  upon  a 
fiery  charger,  and  put  in  the  place  of  it  a  slight,  attenu 
ated  form,  a  yellowish,  wrinkled  face,  the  dark-blue  eyes 
of  which  were  the  only  feature  that  told  anything  of  the 
power  and  quality  of  the  man.  In  great  emergencies,  it 
is  true,  his  will  was  master,  compelling  his  impaired  body 
to  execute  all  its  resolves.  But  the  reaction  was  terrible 
sometimes,  days  of  agony  and  prostration  following  an 
hour  of  anxiety  or  exertion.  He  gradually  learned  in 
some  degree  to  manage  and  control  his  disease.  But 
all  through  the  Creek  war  and  the  New  Orleans  cam 
paign  he  was  an  acute  sufferer,  more  fit  for  a  sick-cham 
ber  than  for  the  forest  bivouac  or  the  field  of  battle. 
There  were  times,  and  critical  times,  too,  when  it  seemed 
impossible  that  he  could  go  on.  But  at  the  decisive 
moment  he  always  rallied,  and  would  do  what  the  de 
cisive  moment  demanded. 

General  Jackson  rested  from  his  labors  three  weeks. 
As   soon   as   his   acceptance  of   the  major-generalship 


122  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

reached  Washington  he  was  ordered  to  take  command 
of  the  Southern  Division  of  the  army,  if  division  it  could 
be  called,  which  consisted  of  three  half-filled  regiments. 
He  was  ordered  to  halt,  on  his  way  to  the  Southern 
coast,  long  enough  to  form  a  definite  treaty  with  the 
Creeks,  or  rather  to  announce  to  them  the  terms  upon 
which  the  United  States  would  consent  to  a  permanent 
peace.  Colonel  Hawkins,  who  had  been  the  agent  for 
the  Creeks  since  the  days  of  General  Washington,  was 
associated  with  the  general  in  this  business.  On  the 
loth  of  July,  General  Jackson,  with  a  small  retinue, 
reached  the  holy  ground  once  more,  the  place  appointed 
for  meeting  the  chiefs,  where  he  assumed  the  command 
of  the  troops  and  prepared  to  begin  the  negotiation. 

The  instructions  from  the  Secretary  of  War  set  forth 
that  terms  were  to  be  dictated  to  the  Creeks  as  to  a 
conquered  people.  The  commissioners  were  to  demand, 
first,  an  indemnification  for  the  expenses  incurred  by 
the  United  States  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  by  such 
a  cession  of  land  as  might  be  deemed  an  equivalent ; 
secondly,  a  stipulation  on  the  part  of  the  Creeks  that 
they  would  cease  all  intercourse  with  any  Spanish  garri 
son  or  town,  and  not  admit  among  them  any  agent  or 
trader  who  did  not  derive  his  authority  or  license  from 
the  United  States;  thirdly,  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
right  of  the  United  States  to  open  roads  through  the 
Creek  territory,  and  to  establish  such  military  posts  and 
trading-houses  as  might  be  necessary  and  proper ;  and, 
lastly,  the  surrender  of  the  prophets  and  instigators  of 
the  war. 

An  outline  of  a  treaty  in  accordance  with  these  prin 
ciples  was  promptly  submitted  by  the  commissioners  to 
the  council  of  chiefs;  an  engagement  being  added  that, 
in  consideration  of  the  destitute  condition  of  the  tribe, 
supplies  would  be  furnished  by  the  United  States  until 


THE  FINISHING  BLOW. 


123 


the  maturity  of  the  next  crop.  After  a  delay  of  a  whole 
month  in  negotiation  the  treaty  was  signed  by  the  chiefs 
and  the  commissioners,  and  General  Jackson,  accompa 
nied  by  his  staff  and  a  few  troops,  directed  his  steps 
toward  Mobile.  Rumors  of  the  great  British  expedi 
tion  against  New  Orleans  already  alarmed  the  South 
ern  country.  British  troops,  indeed,  were  already  in 
Florida. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MOBILE  DEFENDED,  AND  THE  ENGLISH  DRIVEN  FROM 
PENSACOLA. 

IT  may  have  surprised  the  reader  that  a  commander 
so  remarkable  for  celerity  of  movement  as  General  Jack 
son  should  have  lingered  a  whole  month  at  the  junction 
of  the  Coosa  and  Tallapoosa,  concluding  a  treaty  with 
the  Creeks.  But  that  was  by  no  means  his  principal 
employment  there,  as  shall  now  be  shown. 

All  that  summer  he  had  had  a  watchful  and  fre 
quently  a  wrathful  eye  on  Florida.  That  the  flying 
Creeks  should  have  been  afforded  a  refuge  in  that  prov 
ince  first  moved  him  to  anger,  for  it  was  the  nature  of 
Andrew  Jackson  to  finish  whatever  he  undertook.  He 
went,  as  Colonel  Benton  often  remarked,  for  "  a  clean 
victory  or  a  clean  defeat."  As  long  as  there  was  any 
where  on  earth  one  Creek  maintaining  an  attitude  of  hos 
tility  against  the  United  States,  he  felt  his  work  incom 
plete,  and  regarded  any  man  or  Governor  as  an  enemy 
who  gave  that  solitary  warrior  aid  and  comfort.  Being 
a  man  with  less  of  the  spirit  of  the  circumlocution  office 
in  him  than  any  other  individual  then  extant — a  man,  in 
fact,  with  not  a  shred  of  red  tape  in  his  composition — the 
impulse  of  his  mind  was  to  march  straight  into  the  heart 
of  Florida  and  extinguish  the  hostile  remnant  of  the 
Creeks  without  more  ado.  That,  however,  was  a  meas 
ure  of  which  he  was  not  yet  ready  to  assume  the  whole 
responsibility. 


MOBILE   DEFENDED.  125 

While  on  his  way  from  the  Hermitage  to  Fort  Jack 
son,  a  rumor  reached  his  ears  that  a  British  vessel  was 
at  Appalachicola  landing  arms  for  distribution  among 
the  Indians.  His  first  act,  therefore,  on  arriving  at  the 
treaty  ground,  was  to  select,  by  the  aid  of  Colonel  Haw 
kins,  some  trustworthy  Indians  to  send  to  Appalachicola 
to  ascertain  what  was  going  on  there.  Before  they  re 
turned,  a  piece  of  very  tangible  evidence  of  the  truth  of 
the  rumor  reached  him  in  the  form  of  a  new  musket  of 
English  manufacture,  which  had  been  given  to  a  Creek 
of  the  peace  party  by  a  friend  of  his  at  Appalachicola 
only  a  week  before.  We  can  imagine  the  feelings  and  the 
manner  of  Jackson  as  he  handled,  examined,  and  des 
canted  upon  this  shining  weapon.  The  owner  of  the 
musket,  upon  being  questioned,  stated  that  a  party  of 
British  troops  was  at  Appalachicola,  giving  out  arms 
and  ammunition  to  all  the  hostile  Indians  that  applied 
for  them. 

In  fifteen  days  the  friendly  Indians  returned  to  Fort 
Jackson,  confirming  the  testimony  of  the  new  musket  and 
its  proprietor.  Soon  came  rumors  that  a  large  force  of 
British  were  expected  at  Pensacola,  and  at  length  posi 
tive  information  of  the  landing  of  Colonel  Nichols,  of 
the  welcome  he  had  received  from  the  Spanish  governor, 
and  of  his  extraordinary  proceedings. 

"  Florida  must  be  ours,"  was  thenceforth  the  burden 
of  General  Jackson's  secret  thoughts,  communicated 
only  to  two  or  three  of  his  most  confidential  officers. 
"  Florida  must  be  ours,"  was  the  burden  of  his  letters 
to  the  Secretary  of  War.  "  If  the  hostile  Creeks,"  he 
wrote  to  the  Secretary,  "  have  taken  refuge  in  Florida, 
and  are  there  fed,  clothed,  and  protected ;  if  the  British 
have  landed  a  large  force,  munitions  of  war,  and  are 
fortifying  and  stirring  up  the  savages,  will  you  only  say 
to  me,  '  Raise  a  few  hundred  militia,  which  can  be  quickly 


126  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

done,  and,  with  such  regular  force  as  can  be  conveniently 
collected,  make  a  descent  upon  Pensacola  and  reduce 
it  ? '  If  so,  I  promise  you  the  war  in  the  South  shall  have 
a  speedy  termination,  and  English  influence  be  forever 
destroyed  with  the  savages  in  this  quarter." 

The  answer  of  Secretary  Armstrong  to  this  letter — 
whether  from  accident  or  design  will  never  be  known — 
was  six  months  on  its  way  from  Washington  to  the  hands 
of  General  Jackson.  It  reached  him  at  New  Orleans 
when  the  campaign  and  the  war  were  over.  It  gave  him 
all  the  authority  he  desired. 

"  If  this  letter,"  he  would  say  in  after-years,  "or  any 
hint  that  such  a  course  would  have  been  even  winked  at 
by  the  Government,  had  been  received,  it  would  have 
been  in  my  power  to  have  captured  the  British  shipping 
in  the  bay.  I  would  have  marched  at  once  against  Bar 
rancas  and  carried  it,  and  thus  prevented  any  escape. 
But,  acting  on  my  own  responsibility  against  a  neutral 
power,  it  became  essential  for  me  to  proceed  with  more 
caution  than  my  judgment  or  wishes  approved,  and  con 
sequently  important  advantages  were  lost  which  might 
have  been  secured." 

Colonel  Nichols,  taking  no  precautions  whatever  to 
conceal  his  designs,  but  rather  courting  publicity,  Gen 
eral  Jackson  was  kept  well  informed  of  what  was  tran 
spiring  in  Florida.  Early  in  September  it  was  noised 
about  in  Pensacola,  and  soon  reported  to  General  Jack 
son,  that  Colonel  Nichols  had  hostile  designs  upon  Mo 
bile.  The  general's  mind  from  that  moment  was  made 
up.  He  would  dally  no  longer  with  a  Secretary  of  War 
two  months  distant ;  he  would  take  the  responsibility ; 
he  would  fight  the  Southern  campaign  himself  as  best  he 
could,  orders  or  no  orders.  Already  he  had  written  to 
the  Governors  of  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  and  Mississippi, 
urging  them  to  complete  the  organization  of  their  militia, 


MOBILE   DEFENDED. 


127 


"  for,"  said  he,  "  there  is  no  telling  when  or  where  the 
spoiler  may  come."  "  Dark  and  heavy  clouds,"  he  said 
in  another  letter,  "hover  around  us.  The  energy  and 
patriotism  of  the  citizens  of  your  States  must  dispel 
them.  Our  rights,  our  liberties,  and  free  Constitution 
are  threatened.  This  noble  patrimony  of  our  fathers 
must  be  defended  with  the  best  blood  of  our  country ; 
to  do  this,  you  must  hasten  to  carry  into  effect  the 
requisition  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  call  forth  your 
troops  without  delay." 

On  the  pth  of  September,  Colonel  Butler,  Jackson's 
adjutant-general,  who  had  been  sent  to  Tennessee  to 
hasten  the  organization  of  the  new  levies  in  that  State, 
received  the  welcome  order  from  Jackson  to  call  out  the 
troops  and  march  them  with  all  dispatch  southward 
toward  Mobile.  The  call  was  obeyed  with  even  greater 
alacrity  than  that  of  the  last  year,  when  the  massacre  of 
Fort  Mims  was  to  be  avenged.  General  Coffee  was 
promptly  in  the  field  once  more.  Such  was  the  eager 
ness  of  the  Tennesseeans  to  share  a  campaign  with 
General  Jackson,  that  considerable  sums,  ranging  from 
thirty  to  eighty  dollars,  were  paid  for  the  privilege  of 
being  substitutes  for  those  who  could  not  go.  On  the 
appointed  day  two  thousand  men  appeared  at  the  ren 
dezvous,  well  armed  and  equipped,  ready  to  march  with 
General  Coffee,  four  hundred  miles,  to  the  scene  of  ex 
pected  combat.  At  the  same  time  a  small  body  of  re 
cruits  for  the  regular  army  set  out  from  Nashville 
toward  Mobile.  Colonel  Butler,  as  soon  as  he  had 
completed  his  business  in  Tennessee,  hurried  forward 
to  conduct  to  the  same  place  the  forces  stationed  at  the 
posts  which  had  been  established  during  the  late  Creek 
war. 

Mobile  was  an  insignificant  village  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  houses  when  Jackson  arrived  there  to  defend  it, 


I28  GENERAL   JACKSON. 

in  the  latter  part  of  August,  1814.  Like  Pensacola,  it 
derived  whatever  importance  it  had  from  the  bay  at 
the  head  of  which  it  was  situated,  and  the  great  river 
system  of  which  that  bay  is  the  outlet. 

When  General  Jackson  reached  Mobile  he  found  it 
little  better  prepared  for  defense  against  any  but  an  In 
dian  foe  than  if  war  were  unknown  to  the  civilized  part 
of  mankind.  There  were  some  blockhouses  and  stock 
ades  in  the  town,  but  no  structure  that  could  resist 
artillery.  Nor,  indeed,  was  there  need  of  any,  for  the 
place  was  to  be  defended  or  lost  at  Mobile  Point,  thirty 
miles  down  the  bay.  If  Colonel  Nichols  and  Captain 
Percy  had  touched  at  the  Point  on  their  way  to  Pensa 
cola  and  landed  two  hundred  men  there,  they  would 
have  given  General  Jackson  much  more  trouble  than 
they  did.  There  was  nothing  to  hinder  their  doing  so 
at  the  time. 

To  Mobile  Point  Jackson  repaired  soon  after  his  ar 
rival  at  Mobile.  There  he  found  the  remains  of  the 
fortification,  then  called  Fort  Bowyer,  though  the  name 
has  since  been  changed  to  Fort  Morgan.  Incomplete, 
and  yet  falling  into  ruin,  without  a  bomb-proof,  and 
mounting  but  two  twenty-four  pounders,  six  twelves, 
and  twelve  smaller  pieces,  it  was  plain  that  Fort  Bowyer 
was  Mobile's  chance  of  safety.  It  had  been  untenanted 
for  a  year  or  more,  and  contained  nothing  of  the  means 
of  defense  except  cannons  and  cannon-balls.  For  the 
information  of  unprofessional  readers,  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  the  fort  was  a  semicircular  structure,  with  such 
additional  outworks  as  were  necessary  to  enable  it  to 
command  the  all-important  channel,  the  peninsula,  and 
the  open  sea.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  ditch  twenty  feet 
wide.  Its  weak  point  was  similar  to  that  by  which  Fort 
Ticonderoga  was  once  taken — it  was  overlooked  by 
some  tall  hillocks  of  sand  within  cannon  range. 


MOBILE   DEFENDED.  1 29 

Into  this  fort  General  Jackson,  with  all  haste,  threw 
a  garrison  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  men,  commanded 
by  Major  Lawrence,  of  the  Second  Regiment  of  United 
States  Infantry,  as  gallant  a  spirit  as  ever  stood  to  his 
country^  defense.  A  large  proportion  of  the  little  gar 
rison  were  totally  ignorant  of  gunnery,  and  had  to  learn 
the  art  by  practicing  it  in  fighting  the  enemy.  The  first 
twelve  days  in  September  were  employed  by  them  in 
repairing  the  essential  parts  of  the  fortification,  while 
General  Jackson  was  busy  on  shore  dispatching  provis 
ions  and  ammunition,  and  counting  over  and  over  again 
the  days  that  must  elapse  before  he  could  reasonably 
expect  the  arrival  of  re-enforcements. 

No  signs  of  an  enemy  appeared  until  the  morning  of 
the  i2th  of  September,  when  an  out-sentinel  came  run 
ning  in  with  the  report  that  a  body  of  British  marines 
and  Indians  had  landed  on  the  peninsula,  within  a  few 
miles  of  the  fort.  Colonel  Nichols,  it  afterward  ap 
peared,  was  the  commander  of  this  detachment,  which 
consisted,  according  to  American  writers,  of  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  marines  and  six  hundred  Indians;  ac 
cording  to  James,  the  English  historian,  of  sixty  marines 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty  Indians.  Captain  Wood 
bine  commanded  the  Indian  part  of  this  force.  Toward 
evening  of  the  same  day  four  British  vessels  of  war  hove 
in  sight  and  came  to  anchor  near  the  coast,  six  miles 
from  the  Point.  These  proved  to  be  the  Hermes,  Cap 
tain  Percy,  twenty-two  guns;  the  Sophia,  in  command 
of  Captain  Lockyer,  eighteen  guns  ;  the  Carron,  twenty 
guns;  and  the  Childers,  eighteen  guns — the  whole  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Percy. 

Night  fell  upon  the  fleet,  the  land  force,  and  the  anx 
ious  garrison,  without  any  movement  having  been  at 
tempted  on  either  side.  The  garrison  slept  upon  their 
arms,  every  man  at  his  post. 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

The  next  day  a  reconnoitering  party  approached 
within  three  quarters  of  a  mile  and  then  retired.  A  little 
after  noon  Colonel  Nichols  drew  a  howitzer,  the  only  one 
he  had  with  him,  behind  a  mound  seven  hundred  yards 
from  the  fort.  He  fired  three  shells  and  a  cannon-ball, 
which  splintered  a  piece  of  timber  that  crowned  part  of 
the  rampart,  but  did  no  other  damage.  The  garrison, 
without  being  able  to  see  the  enemy,  fired  a  few  shots 
in  the  direction  of  the  mound.  Under  cover  of  other 
sand-hills  Nichols  then  withdrew  his  party  to  a  point  a 
mile  and  a  half  distant,  where  he  appeared  to  be  throw 
ing  up  a  breastwork.  Three  well-aimed  shots  from  the 
fort  again  dispersed  the  party  and  drove  them  beyond 
range,  within  which  they  did  not  return  that  day.  Later 
in  the  afternoon  several  small  boats  put  off  from  the 
ships,  and  attempted  to  sound  the  channel  near  Mobile 
Point.  A  few  discharges  of  ball  and  grape  drove  them 
off  also,  and  they  returned  to  the  ships.  Night  again 
closed  in  upon  the  scene,  and  the  garrison  again  went 
to  sleep  upon  their  arms,  encouraged  and  confident. 

On  the  following  morning,  as  soon  as  it  was  light 
enough  to  discern  distant  objects,  the  enemy  was  seen  at 
the  same  place,  still  engaged,  as  it  seemed,  in  throwing 
up  works,  the  ships  remaining  at  their  former  anchorage. 
As  the  morning  wore  away  without  any  further  move 
ment,  Major  Lawrence,  concluding  that  the  enemy  de 
signed  to  take  the  fort  by  regular  approaches,  thought 
it  most  prudent  to  send  an  express  to  General  Jackson, 
informing  him  of  the  enemy's  arrival  and  asking  a  re-en 
forcement.  It  so  chanced  that  Jackson  had  set  out  on 
that  very  morning  to  visit  the  fort,  and  had  sailed  to 
within  a  few  miles  of  it  when  he  met  the  boat  bearing 
Major  Lawrence's  message.  Back  to  Mobile  he  hurried, 
his  bargemen  straining  every  nerve.  He  reached  the 
town  late  at  night,  where  he  instantly  mustered  a  body 


MOBILE  DEFENDED.  131 

of  eighty  men,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Laval, 
hurried  them  on  board  a  small  brig,  and  saw  them  off 
toward  Mobile  Point  before  he  left  the  shore.  At  the 
fort  the  whole  day  passed  in  inaction.  Night  came  on 
apace,  and  once  more  the  beleaguered  garrison  lay  upon 
their  arms,  wondering  what  the  morrow  would  bring 
forth. 

Day  dawned  upon  the  i5th  of  September.  Straining 
eyes  from  the  summit  of  the  fort  sought  to  penetrate 
the  morning  mist.  Gradually  the  low,  dark  line  of  the 
enemy's  bivouac,  and  then  the  dim  outline  of  the  more 
distant  ships,  became  visible.  There  they  were,  un 
changed  from  the  day  before.  Are  we  to  have  another 
day,  then,  of  puzzle  and  inactivity  ?  As  the  morning 
cleared  it  was  observed  that  there  was  an  unwonted  stir 
and  movement  among  the  enemy.  There  was  a  march 
ing  hither  and  thither  upon  the  peninsula ;  boats  were 
passing  and  repassing  between  the  shore  and  the  ships ; 
and  all  those  nameless  indications  were  noticed  which 
announce  that  something  absorbing  and  decisive  is  on 
foot.  There  is  a  magnetism  in  the  very  air  on  such  oc 
casions  which  conveys  an  intimation  of  coming  events 
to  the  high-strained  nerves  of  belligerent  men.  Still, 
hour  after  hour  passed  on,  and  the  ships  lay  at  an 
chor,  and  the  busy  troops  upon  the  shore  made  no 
advance. 

An  hour  before  noon  the  wind,  which  had  been  fresh, 
fell  to  a  light  breeze,  favorable  for  a  movement  of  the 
squadron.  The  ships  now  weighed  anchor  and  stood 
out  to  sea;  the  little  garrison  looking  out  over  the  ram 
parts  and  through  the  portholes.  For  nearly  three 
hours  the  ships  beat  up  against  the  light  wind,  away 
from  the  fort,  till  they  were  hull  down  in  the  blue  gulf. 
Have  they  given  it  up,  then,  without  a  trial  ?  At  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  they  were  observed  to  tack,  get 


132  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

before  the  wind,  and  bear  down  toward  the  fort  in  line 
of  battle,  the  Hermes  leading.  The  suspense  was  over. 
They  were  going  to  attack  ! 

Then  Major  Lawrence,  in  the  true  spirit  of  a  clas 
sical  hero,  called  his  officers  together  to  concert  the 
requisite  measures.  "  Don't  give  up  the  Fort !  "  was 
adopted  as  the  signal  for  the  day,  and  it  did  but  express 
the  unanimous  feeling  of  the  garrison.  The  officers, 
while  agreeing  to  defend  the  fort  as  long  as  it  was  tena 
ble,  defined  also  the  terms  upon  which  alone  the  sur 
vivors  should  surrender.  These  were  the  words  of  their 
resolution,  deliberately  concluded  upon  while  the  fleet 
was  approaching,  and  the  force  on  the  peninsula  was 
preparing  for  simultaneous  attack  : 

"  That  in  case  of  being,  by  imperious  necessity,  com 
pelled  to  surrender  (which  could  only  happen  in  the  last 
extremity,  on  the  ramparts  being  entirely  battered  down 
and  the  garrison  almost  wholly  destroyed,  so  that  any 
further  resistance  would  be  evidently  useless),  no  capit 
ulation  should  be  agreed  on  unless  it  had  for  its  funda 
mental  article  that  the  officers  and  privates  should  retain 
their  arms  and  their  private  property,  and  that  on  no 
pretext  should  the  Indians  be  suffered  to  commit  any 
outrage  on  their  persons  or  property;  and  unless  full 
assurance  were  given  them  that  they  would  be  treated 
as  prisoners  of  war,  according  to  the  custom  established 
among  civilized  nations." 

The  officers  ratified  this  resolution  by  an  oath,  each 
man  solemnly  swearing  to  abide  by  it  in  any  and  every 
extremity.  Now,  every  man  to  his  post,  and  don't  give 
up  the  fort ! 

At  four  o'clock  the  Hermes  came  within  reach  of  the 
fort's  great  guns.  A  few  shots  were  exchanged  with 
little  effect.  One  by  one  the  other  vessels  came  up  and 
gave  the  garrison  some  practice  at  long  range,  but  no 


MOBILE   DEFENDED. 

great  harm  was  done  them.  At  half  past  four,  Captain 
Percy,  like  the  gallant  sailor  that  he  was,  ran  the  Hermes 
right  into  the  narrow  channel  that  leads  into  the  bay, 
dropped  anchor  within  musket  shot  of  the  fort,  and 
turned  his  broadside  to  its  guns.  The  other  vessels  fol 
lowed  his  brave  example,  and  anchored  in  the  channel 
one  behind  the  other,  all  within  reach  of  the  long  guns 
of  the  fort,  though  considerably  more  distant  from  them 
than  the  Hermes. 

Then  arose  a  thundering  cannonade.  Broadside 
after  broadside  from  the  ships ;  the  fort  replying  by  a 
steady,  quick  fire,  that  was  better  and  better  directed  as 
the  fight  went  on.  Meanwhile  Captain  Woodbine,  from 
behind  a  bluff  in  the  shore,  opened  fire  from  his  how 
itzer  ;  but  a  few  shots  from  the  fort's  south  battery 
silenced  him,  and  compelled  him  for  a  time  to  keep  his 
distance. 

For  an  hour  the  firing  continued  on  both  sides  with 
out  a  moment's  pause,  the  fleet  and  the  fort  enveloped 
in  huge  volumes  of  smoke,  lighted  up  by  the  incessant 
flash  of  the  guns.  At  half  past  five  the  halyards  of  the 
Hermes's  flag  were  severed  by  a  shot,  and  the  flag  fell 
into  the  fire  and  smoke  below.  Major  Lawrence,  think 
ing  it  possible  the  ship  might  have  surrendered,  ceased 
his  fire.  A  silence  of  five  minutes  succeeded,  at  the 
expiration  of  which  a  new  flag  fluttered  up  to  the  mast 
head  of  the  commodore's  ship,  and  the  Sophia,  that  lay 
next  her,  renewed  the  strife  by  firing  a  whole  broadside 
at  once.  In  the  interval  every  gun  in  the  fort  had  been 
loaded,  and  the  broadside  was  returned  with  a  salvo  that 
shook  the  earth.  A  most  furious  firing  succeeded,  and 
continued  for  some  time  longer  without  any  important 
mishap  occurring  on  either  side. 

At  length  a  shot  from  the  fort — a  lucky  shot  indeed 
for  the  little  garrison — cut  the  cable  of  the  Hermes. 
10 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

The  current  of  the  channel  in  which  she  lay  caught  her 
heavy  stern  and  turned  her  bow-foremost  to  the  fort, 
where  she  lay  for  twenty  minutes,  raked  from  bow  to 
stern  by  a  terrible  fire.  At  this  time  it  was  that  the 
flag-staff  of  the  fort  was  shot  away.  The  ships,  it  is  to 
be  presumed,  either  because  they  did  not  perceive  the  ab 
sence  of  the  flag,  or  because  they  knew  the  cause  of  its 
absence,  redoubled  their  firing  at  the  moment;  while 
Captain  Woodbine  and  his  whooping  savages,  supposing 
the  fort  had  surrendered,  ran  up  to  seize  their  prey.  A 
few  discharges  of  grape  drove  the  Indians  howling  back 
behind  the  hillocks  out  of  sight,  and  another  flag,  fast 
ened  hastily  to  a  sponging-rod,  was  raised  above  the 
ramparts. 

The  Hermes,  totally  unmanageable,  her  decks  swept 
of  every  man  and  everything,  drifted  slowly  along  with 
the  current  for  half  a  mile  and  then  ran  aground.  Still 
exposed  to  the  fire,  and  damaged  in  every  part  by  the 
hail  of  shot  she  had  received,  it  was  impossible  either  to 
save  or  fight  her.  Captain  Percy  therefore  got  out  his 
wounded  men,  transferred  them  to  the  Sophia,  set  his 
ship  on  fire,  and  abandoned  her  to  her  fate.  Then  the 
Sophia,  which  was  also  severely  crippled,  contrived  with 
difficulty  to  get  out  of  range.  The  two  other  vessels, 
which  were  not  seriously  harmed,  hoisted  sail  and  de 
parted  to  their  old  anchorage  off  the  coast.  The  fort 
guns  continued  to  play  upon  the  Hermes  till  dark, 
when  the  fire  burst  through  her  hatches  and  lighted 
up  the  scene  with  more  than  the  brilliancy  of  day. 
At  eleven  o'clock  she  blew  up,  with  an  explosion  that 
was  heard  by  General  Jackson  at  Mobile,  thirty  miles 
distant. 

When  the  next  day  dawned,  Nichols,  Woodbine,  ma 
rines  and  Indians,  had  vanished  from  the  peninsula. 
The  three  vessels  were  still  in  sight,  but  early  in  the 


MOBILE   DEFENDED. 


135 


afternoon  they  weighed  anchor,  stood  to  sea,  and  were 
seen  no  more. 

Then  the  heroic  little  garrison  came  forth  exulting 
from  their  battered  walls,  surveyed  the  scene  of  the  late 
encounter,  and  reckoned  up  their  victory.  Four  of  their 
number  lay  dead  within  the  fort;  four  others  were 
wounded  in  the  battle ;  six  men  had  been  injured  by 
the  bursting  of  some  cartridges.  Both  of  the  great 
twenty-four  pounders  were  cracked  beyond  using.  Two 
guns  had  been  knocked  off  their  carriages ;  one  had 
burst ;  one  had  been  broken  short  off  by  a  thirty-two- 
pound  ball.  The  walls  of  the  fort  showed  the  holes  and 
marks  of  three  hundred  balls,  and  the  ground  about  the 
fort  was  plowed  into  ridges.  Though  but  twelve  pieces 
had  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  fleet,  the  stock  of 
cannon-balls  had  been  diminished  by  seven  hundred. 
The  wreck  of  the  gallant  Hermes  lay  near  by,  her  guns 
visible  in  the  clear  water  of  the  channel. 

The  garrison  was  ignorant,  as  yet,  of  the  name,  the 
force,  and  the  loss  of  the  enemy.  They  knew  not 
whence  they  had  come,  whither  they  were  gone,  nor  how 
soon  they  might  return  in  greater  numbers  to  renew  the 
attack.  In  the  course  of  the  day,  two  marines,  deserters 
from  the  party  under  Colonel  Nichols,  came  in  and  gave 
the  garrison  all  the  information  they  desired.  They  re 
ported  the  British  loss  at  one  hundred  and  sixty-two 
killed  and  seventy  wounded.  This  was  an  exaggeration. 
The  real  loss  of  the  English,  as  officially  given  by  them 
selves,  was  thirty-two  killed  and  forty  wounded.  Among 
the  wounded  was  Colonel  Nichols  himself,  who  lost  an 
eye  in  one  of  his  reconnoiterings.  The  deserters  stated 
that  the  ships  had  returned  to  Pensacola,  leaving  the 
marines  and  Indians  to  march  back  to  the  same  place 
as  best  they  could. 

After  the  defense  of  Fort  Bowyer,  General  Jackson 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

had  to  endure  six  weeks  of  most  intolerable  waiting. 
Nothing  could  be  done  before  the  arrival  of  the  troops 
from  Tennessee.  To  the  tedium  of  delay  was  added  a 
torturing  uncertainty  with  regard  to  the  nature,  the  ex 
tent,  and  the  proximity  of  the  impending  danger.  If  a 
powerful  expedition  should  arrive,  which  rumor  with  a 
thousand  tongues  foretold,  to  which  so  many  probabili 
ties  pointed,  New  Orleans  was  open  to  its  approach,  and 
Fort  Bowyer,  with  its  battered  ramparts  and  cracked 
guns,  could  make  but  a  poor  and  brief  resistance.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  during  these  weeks  the  chronic  mal 
ady  under  which  the  general  suffered  should  have  given 
him  many  a  pang,  and  frequently  laid  him  prostrate  for 
many  successive  hours.  His  attenuated  form  and  yel 
low,  haggard  face  struck  every  one  with  surprise  who 
saw  him  then  for  the  first  time. 

On  the  25th  of  November  came  at  length  an  ex 
press  from  General  Coffee,  announcing  his  arrival  on 
the  Mobile  River  with  an  army  of  twenty-eight  hun 
dred  men.  The  next  day  Jackson  joined  him  and  took 
the  command.  Including  the  troops  led  by  General 
Coffee,  the  garrison  of  Mobile,  a  body  of  mounted 
Mississippians,  and  a  small  number  of  Creek  Indians, 
General  Jackson  found  himself,  by  the  ist  of  November, 
in  command  of  an  army  of  four  thousand  men,  of  whom 
perhaps  one  thousand  were  troops  of  the  regular  serv 
ice.  A  large  proportion  of  the  volunteers,  not  less 
than  fifteen  hundred,  were  mounted.  It  is  mentioned,  as 
a  signal  proof  of  their  zeal  in  the  service,  that  they 
willingly  left  their  horses  to  pasture  on  the  Mobile 
River,  and  served  as  infantry  during  the  subsequent 
operations,  forage  being  scarce  on  the  way  they  were 
next  to  go. 

General  Jackson  had  resolved,  without  waiting  for 
any  further  development  of  the  enemy's  plans,  to  "  rout 


MOBILE    DEFENDED.  137 

the  English  out  of  Pensacola,"  as  he  was  wont  to  ex 
press  it.  The  press  and  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  had  been  clamoring  for  this  with  increasing  vehe 
mence  and  unanimity  ever  since  they  had  heard  of  the 
landing  of  Colonel  Nichols.  Jackson  was  nothing  loath. 
In  the  whole  range  of  military  enterprise  no  expedition 
could  have  been  suggested  which  he  would  have  under 
taken  with  so  keen  a  zest  as  a  march  upon  Pensacola. 
The  treasure-chest  being  empty,  Jackson  was  compelled 
to  purchase  supplies  partly  with  money  of  his  own  and 
partly  on  the  credit  of  the  Government.  On  the  3d  of 
November,  rations  for  eight  days  having  been  distrib 
uted,  he  marched,  with  three  thousand  men,  unencum 
bered  with  baggage,  toward  Pensacola,  and  halted,  on 
the  evening  of  the  6th,  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the 
place. 

Not  less  prudent  than  impetuous  on  great  occa 
sions,  Jackson  immediately  sent  forward  Major  Piere, 
of  the  Forty-fourth  Infantry,  with  a  flag,  to  confer 
with  Governor  Maurequez.  He  was  ordered  to  give 
a  friendly  and  candid  explanation  of  the  object  of  Gen 
eral  Jackson ;  which  ,was,  not  to  make  war  upon  a  neu 
tral  power,  nor  to  injure  the  town,  nor  needlessly  to 
alarm  the  subjects  of  the  Spanish  king,  but  merely  to 
deprive  the  enemies  of  the  United  States  of  a  refuge  and 
basis  of  offensive  operations.  Major  Piere  was  also  to 
demand  the  immediate  surrender  of  the  forts,  which 
General  Jackson  pledged  himself  to  hold  only  in  trust, 
and  to  restore  uninjured  as  soon  as  the  present  peril  of 
the  Gulf  ports  was  passed. 

As  the  major  approached  Fort  St.  Michael,  bearing 
the  flag  of  truce,  he  was  fired  upon ;  upon  which  he  re 
tired  and  reported  the  fact  to  the  general.  Jackson 
then  rode  forward,  and  discovered,  upon  inspecting  the 
fort,  that  it  was  garrisoned  both  by  British  and  Spanish 


138  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

troops,  though  only  the  Spanish  ensign  now  floated  from 
the  flagstaff.  Ordering  the  troops  to  bivouac  for  the 
night,  he  resolved  on  the  following  day  to  storm  the 
town.  Upon  reflecting,  however,  that  the  firing  upon 
the  flag  was  probably  the  work  of  the  English  part  of 
the  garrison,  he  made  another  attempt  in  the  course  of 
the  evening  to  reach  the  Governor  and  bring  him  to 
terms.  A  Spanish  corporal  had  been  taken  on  the 
march,  to  whom  Jackson  now  intrusted  a  message  to 
the  Governor,  asking  an  explanation  of  the  insult  to 
the  flag.  Late  in  the  evening  the  corporal  returned 
with  a  verbal  communication  from  the  Governor,  to  the 
effect  that  he  was  powerless  in  the  hands  of  the  British, 
who  alone  had  been  concerned  in  firing  upon  the  flag 
of  truce,  and  that  he  would  gladly  receive  any  over 
tures  the  American  general  might  be  pleased  to  make. 
Jackson,  rejoicing  in  the  prospect  of  a  bloodless  and 
speedy  success,  at  once  dispatched  Major  Piere  again  to 
the  town,  who  was  soon  in  the  Governor's  presence 
performing  his  mission.  Jackson  had  hastily  written  a 
letter  to  Maurequez,  summing  up  his  demands  and  pur 
poses  in  his  brief,  decisive  way.  "I  come,"  said  he, 
"  not  as  the  enemy  of  Spain  ;  not  to  make  war,  but  to 
ask  for  peace ;  to  demand  security  for  my  country,  and 
that  respect  to  which  she  is  entitled  and  must  receive. 
My  force  is  sufficient,  and  my  determination  taken,  to 
prevent  a  future  repetition  of  the  injuries  she  has  re 
ceived.  I  demand,  therefore,  the  possession  of  the  Bar 
rancas,  and  other  fortifications,  with  all  your  munitions 
of  war.  If  delivered  peaceably,  the  whole  will  be  re 
ceipted  for  and  become  the  subject  of  future  arrange 
ment  by  our  respective  governments ;  while  the  prop 
erty,  laws,  and  religion  of  your  citizens  shall  be  re 
spected.  But  if  taken  by  an  appeal  to  arms,  let  the 
blood  of  your  subjects  be  upon  your  own  head  !  I  will 


MOBILE   DEFENDED. 


139 


not  hold  myself  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  my  en 
raged  soldiers.  One  hour  is  given  you  for  deliberation, 
when  your  determination  must  be  had." 

The  Governor  left  Major  Piere  alone  and  consulted 
with  his  officers.  He  returned  after  a  short  absence, 
and  said,  apparently  with  reluctance — for  the  man  was 
in  a  sore  strait  between  two — and  cared  only  for  the 
preservation  of  his  town — that  the  terms  proposed  by 
General  Jackson  could  not  be  acceded  to.  In  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning  Major  Piere  returned  to  the  gen 
eral  and  reported  the  Governor's  answer. 

"  Turn  out  the  troops!  "  was  Jackson's  sole  commen 
tary  upon  the  events  of  the  night. 

An  hour  before  daylight  the  men  were  under  arms 
and  ready  to  advance.  They  had  slept  upon  the  main 
road  leading  into  the  town,  a  road  commanded  by  Fort 
St.  Michael,  and  exposed  to  the  full  force  of  a  cannon 
ade  of  seven  British  men-of-war  that  lay  at  anchor  in 
the  harbor.  But  let  the  general  himself  state  the  events 
of  the  morning : 

"On  the  morning  of  the  7th,"  he  wrote  to  Governor 
Blount  a  few  days  after,  "  I  marched  with  the  effective 
regulars  of  the  Third,  Thirty-ninth,  and  Fourth  Infantry, 
part  of  General  Coffee's  brigade,  the  Mississippi  dra 
goons,  and  part  of  the  West  Tennessee  regiment,  com 
manded  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hammonds  (Colonel 
Lowry  having  deserted  and  gone  home),  and  part  of 
the  Choctaws,  led  by  Major  Blue,  of  the  Thirty-ninth, 
and  Major  Kennedy,  of  Mississippi  Territory.  Being 
encamped  on  the  west  of  the  town,  I  calculated  they 
would  expect  the  assault  from  that  quarter,  and  be 
prepared  to  rake  me  from  the  fort,  and  the  British 
armed  vessels,  seven  in  number,  that  lay  in  the  bay. 
To  cherish  this  idea,  I  sent  out  part  of  the  mounted 
men  to  show  themselves  on  the  west,  while  I  passed 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

in  rear  of  the  fort,  undiscovered,  to  the  east  of  the 
town.  When  I  appeared  within  a  mile,  I  was  in  full 
view.  My  pride  was  never  more  heightened  than  in 
viewing  the  uniform  firmness  of  my  troops,  and  with 
what  undaunted  courage  they  advanced,  with  a  strong 
fort  ready  to  assail  them  on  the  right,  seven  armed 
vessels  on  the  left,  strong  blockhouses  and  batteries 
of  cannon  in  their  front ;  but  they  still  advanced  with 
unshaken  firmness,  and  entered  the  town,  when  a  bat 
tery  of  two  cannon  was  opened  upon  the  center  column, 
composed  of  regulars,  with  ball  and  grape,  and  a  shower 
of  musketry  from  the  houses  and  gardens.  The  battery 
was  immediately  stormed  by  Captain  Laval  and  his  com 
pany,  and  carried,  and  the  musketry  was  soon  silenced 
by  the  steady  and  well-directed  fire  of  the  regulars." 

In  storming  the  battery,  Captain  Laval  fell  severely 
wounded,  but  the  troops  pressed  forward  into  the  town 
and  took  a  second  battery  before  the  party  posted  in  it 
could  more  than  three  times  reload.  There  was  still 
some  firing  from  behind  houses  and  garden  walls,  when 
the  Governor,  in  utter  consternation,  ran  out  into  the 
streets  bearing  a  white  flag  to  find  the  general.  He 
came  up  first  with  Colonel  Williamson  and  Colonel 
Smith,  commanding  the  dismounted  troops,  to  whom  he 
addressed  himself  with  faltering  speech,  entreating 
them  to  spare  the  town,  and  promising  to  consent  to 
whatever  terms  the  general  in  command  might  propose. 
Jackson,  who  had  halted  for  a  moment  at  the  spot  where 
Captain  Laval  had  fallen,  soon  rode  up,  and,  hearing 
what  had  occurred,  proceeded  to  the  Governor's  house, 
where  he  received  in  person  the  assurance  that  all  the 
forts  should  be  instantly  surrendered. 

Hostilities  ceased.  Owing  to  what  General  Jackson 
styled  "  Spanish  treachery,"  but  probably  to  the  confu 
sion  and  bewilderment  that  prevailed,  and  the  con- 


MOBILE   DEFENDED. 


141 


sequent  misunderstanding  of  orders,  or  perhaps  to  the 
irresolution  of  the  Governor  and  his  desire  to  stand  ex 
cused  in  the  eyes  of  his  English  friends,  the  forts  were 
not  instantly  surrendered.  More  than  once  in  the  course 
of  the  day,  Jackson,  exasperated  at  the  delay,  was  about 
t©  open  fire  upon  them;  but  one  by  one  the  forts  were 
given  up,  and  late  in  the  evening  the  town  was  fully  his 
own — the  town,  but  not  the  port  which  was  far  more 
important.  Fort  Barrancas,  six  miles  distant,  which 
commanded  the  mouth  of  the  harbor,  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  English,  and  gave  complete  protection  to  their 
fleet.  Maurequez  had  given  a  written  order  for  its  sur 
render,  addressed  to  the  nominal  commandant,  and 
Jackson  was  prepared  to  march,  with  the  dawn  of  the 
next  day,  to  receive  it  if  the  order  were  obeyed ;  to  carry 
it  by  storm  if  it  were  not. 

He  was  still  in  hopes  that  by  the  prompt  seizure 
of  Fort  Barrancas  he  could  catch  the  British  fleet  as 
in  a  trap,  and  either  force  it  to  surrender,  or  do  it 
terrible  damage  if  it  should  attempt  to  escape.  But 
before  the  dawn  of  day  a  tremendous  explosion  was 
heard  in  the  direction  of  the  mouth  of  the  harbor ; 
then  another  explosion,  not  so  loud;  and,  a  few  sec 
onds  later,  a  third.  There  was  little  doubt  what  had 
occurred.  Early  in  the  morning  a  party  that  was  sent 
out  to  reconnoiter  returned  with  the  intelligence  that 
Fort  Barrancas  was  a  heap  of  ruins,  and  that  the  British 
vessels  had  disappeared  from  the  bay.  Colonel  Nichols, 
Captain  Woodbine,  the  garrison,  and  some  hundreds  of 
friendly  Indians  had  gone  off  with  the  ships,  leaving 
their  friend  Maurequez  to  settle  with  the  American 
general  as  best  he  could. 

The  sudden  departure  of  the  British  fleet  was  not 
less  alarming  than  disappointing  to  the  general.  Whither 
had  they  gone  ?  The  most  probable  supposition  was 


I42  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

that  they  were  hastening  away  to  attack  Fort  Bowyer 
and  capture  Mobile  in  the  absence  of  the  troops.  To 
retain  Pensacola,  in  the  circumstances,  was  equally  need 
less  and  impossible.  Sending  off  a  dispatch  to  warn 
the  garrison  of  Fort  Bowyer  of  their  danger,  the  gen 
eral  at  once  prepared  to  evacuate  the  town  and  fly  to 
the  defense  of  Mobile.  The  next  morning  he  was  in 
full  march.  Not  a  man  had  been  lost.  Less  than 
twenty  of  the  troops  had  been  wounded,  of  whom  Cap 
tain  Laval  alone  was  obliged  to  be  left  behind  to  the 
care  of  Governor  Maurequez.  The  gallant  captain  re 
ceived  every  attention  which  his  situation  required.  He 
recovered  from  his  wound,  and  was  living,  in  1859,  an 
honored  citizen  of  Charleston,  to  tell  the  story  of  his 
own  and  his  general's  exploits. 

Jackson  waited  in  the  vicinity  of  Mobile  for  ten  days 
in  expectation  of  the  arrival  of  Colonel  Nichols.  That 
officer  did  not  appear,  and  from  the  top  of  Fort  Bowyer 
no  approaching  fleet  was  descried.  At  length  came  in 
telligence  that  Nichols,  Woodbine,  and  their  Indians 
had  been  landed  at  Appalachicola,  where  they  were 
fortifying  a  position  in  all  haste.  Against  them  Jackson 
dispatched  a  body  of  troops  and  friendly  Creeks,  under 
Major  Blue,  who,  after  many  remarkable  adventures 
and  some  severe  fighting,  drove  the  savages  into  the 
interior  and  Colonel  Nichols  from  the  peninsula. 

General  Jackson,  now  freed  from  apprehension  for 
the  safety  of  Mobile,  could  direct  all  his  thoughts  to 
the  defense  of  New  Orleans.  He  left  Mobile  in  com 
mand  of  General  Winchester,  of  the  regular  army.  Fort 
Bowyer  was  still  intrusted  to  the  brave  Major  Lawrence. 
General  Coffee  was  ordered  to  move  by  easy  marches 
toward  New  Orleans,  choosing  the  roads  and  the  course 
that  promised  the  best  forage.  On  the  22d  of  No 
vember,  the  general,  without  any  escort  but  his  staff, 


MOBILE  DEFENDED. 

mounted  horse  and  rode  off  in  the  same  direction.  He 
had  a  journey  before  him  of  a  hundred  and  seventy 
miles,  over  the  roads  of  the  early  years  of  the  century. 
Riding  a  little  more  than  seventeen  miles  a  day,  he  ar 
rived  within  one  short  stage  of  New  Orleans  on  the  ist 
of  December,  1814. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

JACKSON    AT    NEW    ORLEANS,    AND    APPROACH    OF    THE 
BRITISH. 

NEW  ORLEANS  was  all  unprepared  for  defense  against 
a  powerful  foe.  When  the  first  rumor  of  the  approach 
ing  invasion  reached  the  city,  Edward  Livingston,  the 
leading  lawyer  of  the  State,  caused  a  meeting  of  the 
citizens  of  New  Orleans  to  be  convened  at  Tremoulet's 
coffee-house,  to  concert  measures  for  defense.  The 
meeting  occurred  on  the  i5th  of  September,  1814.  Upon 
taking  the  chair,  Livingston  presented  a  series  of  spirited 
resolutions,  breathing  union  and  defiance,  and  supported 
them  by  a  speech  of  stirring  eloquence.  They  were 
passed  by  acclamation.  A  Committee  of  Public  Defense, 
nine  in  number,  with  Edward  Livingston  at  its  head,  was 
appointed,  and  directed  to  prepare  an  address  to  the 
people  of  the  State.  The  publication  of  the  address, 
and  the  gift  of  a  saber  to  the  commandant  of  Fort  Bow- 
yer,  were  the  only  acts  of  the  Committee  of  Public  De 
fense  that  I  find  recorded.  It  may  have  induced  the 
formation  of  new  uniformed  companies  of  volunteers; 
it  may  have  stimulated  the  militia  to  a  more  vigorous 
drill;  it  may  have  induced  the  Governor  to  convene  the 
Legislature ;  but  its  main  effect  was  upon  the  feelings 
and  the  fears  of  the  people. 

On  the  5th  of  October  the  Legislature,  in  obedience 
to  the  summons  of  Governor  Claiborne,  assembled  at 
New  Orleans.  Factious,  and  incredulous  of  danger,  it 


Q       W 

»~     T 


JACKSON   AT   NEW  ORLEANS.  145 

did  nothing,  it  attempted  nothing,  for  the  defense  of  the 
city.  Disputes  of  the  most  trivial  character  engrossed 
the  minds  of  the  members.  All  had  some  fear  of  an 
insurrection  of  the  slaves.  Every  man  had  his  scheme 
or  his  system  of  measures,  which  he  knew  would  save 
the  city  if  it  were  adopted;  but  none  could  bring  any 
plan  to  bear,  or  get  all  the  opportunity  he  wanted  for 
making  it  known.  In  a  word,  there  was  no  central 
power  or  man  in  New  Orleans  in  whom  the  people  suffi 
ciently  confided,  or  who  possessed  the  requisite  lawful 
authority  to  call  out  the  resources  of  the  State  and  di 
rect  them  to  the  single  object  of  defeating  the  expected 
invader.  There  was  talent  enough,  patriotism  enough, 
zeal  enough.  The  uniting  man  alone  was  wanting — a 
man  of  renown  sufficient  to  inspire  confidence — a  man  un 
known  to  the  local  animosities,  around  whom  all  parties 
could  rally  without  conceding  anything  to  one  another. 

Jackson  has  come !  There  was  magic  in  the  news. 
Every  witness  testifies  to  the  electric  effect  of  the  gen 
eral's  quiet  and  sudden  arrival.  There  was  a  truce  at 
once  to  indecision,  to  indolence,  to  incredulity,  to  fac 
tious  debate,  to  paltry  contentions,  to  \vild  alarm.  He 
had  come  so  worn  down  with  disease  and  the  fatigue  of 
his  ten  days'  ride  on  horseback  that  he  was  more  fit  for 
the  hospital  than  the  field ;  but  there  was  that  in  his 
manner  and  aspect  which  revealed  the  master.  That 
will  of  his  triumphed  over  the  languor  and  anguish  of 
disease,  and  every  one  who  approached  him  felt  that 
the  man  for  the  hour  was  there. 

He  began  his  work  without  the  loss  of  one  minute. 
The  unavoidable  formalities  of  his  reception  were  no 
sooner  over  than  he  mounted  his  horse  again  and  rode 
out  to  review  the  uniformed  companies  of  the  city. 
These  companies  consisted  of  several  hundred  men, 
the  Mite  of  the  city — merchants,  lawyers,  the  sons  of 


I46  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

planters,  clerks,  and  others,  who  were  well  equipped,  and 
not  a  little  proud  of  their  appearance  and  discipline. 
The  general  complimented  them  warmly,  addressed  the 
principal  officers,  inquired  respecting  the  numbers,  his 
tory,  and  organization  of  the  companies,  and  left  them 
captivated  with  his  frank  and  straightforward  mode  of 
procedure. 

Returning  to  his  quarters,  the  general  summoned  the 
engineers  resident  in  the  city,  among  others  Major 
Latour,  afterward  the  historian  of  the  campaign.  The 
vulnerable  points  and  practicable  approaches  were  ex 
plained  and  discussed,  and  the  readiest  mode  of  defend 
ing  each  was  considered  and  determined  upon.  Every 
bayou  connecting  the  city  with  the  adjacent  bays,  and 
through  them  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  was  ordered  to 
be  obstructed  by  earth  and  sunken  logs,  and  a  guard  to 
be  posted  at  its  mouth  to  give  warning  of  an  enemy's 
approach.  It  was  determined  that  the  neighboring 
planters  should  be  invited  to  aid  in  the  various  works 
by  gangs  of  slaves.  Young  gentlemen  pressed  to  head 
quarters  offering  to  serve  as  aides  to  the  general.  Ed 
ward  Livingston,  whose  services  in  that  capacity  had 
been  previously  offered  and  accepted,  was  with  the  gen 
eral  from  the  first,  doing  duty  as  aide-de-camp,  secretary, 
translator,  confidential  adviser,  and  connecting  link  gen 
erally  between  the  commander-in-chief  and  the  hetero 
geneous  multitude  he  had  come  to  defend.  Never  before, 
in  the  space  of  a  few  hours,  did  such  a  change  come  over 
the  spirit  of  a  threatened  and  imperiled  city.  The  work 
to  be  done  was  ascertained  and  distributed  during  that 
afternoon  and  evening;  and  it  could  be  said  that, before 
the  city  slept,  every  man  in  it  able  and  willing  to  assist 
in  preparing  for  the  reception  of  the  enemy,  whether  by 
mind  or  muscle,  had  his  task  assigned  him,  and  was 
eager  to  enter  upon  its  performance. 


JACKSON  AT   NEW  ORLEANS.  147 

The  demeanor  of  General  Jackson  on  this  occasion 
was  such  as  to  inspire  peculiar  confidence.  It  was  that 
of  a  man  entirely  resolved,  and  entirely  certain  of  being 
able,  to  do  what  he  had  come  to  do.  He  never  admitted 
a  doubt  of  defeating  the  enemy.  For  his  own  part  he 
had  but  one  simple  plan  to  propose,  nor  would  hear  of 
any  other :  to  make  all  the  preparations  possible  in  the 
time  and  circumstances ;  to  strike  the  enemy  wherever, 
whenever,  and  in  what  force  soever,  he  might  appear ; 
and  to  drive  him  back  headlong  into  the  sea,  or  bring 
him  prisoner  to  New  Orleans.  A  spirit  of  this  kind  is 
very  contagious,  particularly  among  such  a  susceptible 
and  imaginative  people  as  the  French  Creoles — a  people 
not  wise  in  council,  not  gifted  with  the  instinct  of  legis 
lation,  but  mighty  and  terrible  when  strongly  com 
manded.  The  new  impulse  from  the  general's  quar 
ters  spread  throughout  the  city.  Hope  and  resolution 
sat  on  every  countenance. 

Jackson  was  up  betimes  on  the  following  morning, 
and  set  out  in  a  barge,  accompanied  by  aides  and  engi 
neers,  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  lower  part  of  the 
river.  The  principal  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  was  natu 
rally  but  erroneously  the  first  object  of  his  solicitude, 
and  he  had  dispatched  Colonel  A.  P.  Hayne  from  Mobile 
to  the  Balize,  to  ascertain  whether  the  old  fort  there 
commanded  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  whether  it  could 
be  made  available  for  preventing  the  entrance  of  a  hos 
tile  fleet.  Colonel  Hayne  reported  it  useless.  Some 
miles  higher  up  the  river,  however,  at  a  point  where  the 
navigation  was  peculiarly  difficult,  was  Fort  Philip, 
which  it  was  supposed,  and  the  event  proved,  could  be 
rendered  an  impassable  barrier  to  the  enemy's  ships. 
Thither  Jackson  repaired.  He  perceived  the  immense 
importance  of  the  position,  and,  with  the  assistance  of 
Major  Latour,  drew  such  plans  and  suggested  such  al- 


I48  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

terations  of  the  works  as  made  the  fort  entirely  equal 
to  the  defense  of  the  river.  The  stream,  as  every  one 
knows,  is  narrow  and  swift,  and  presents  so  many  obsta 
cles  to  the  ascent  of  large  vessels,  that  an  enemy  unpro 
vided  with  steamboats  would  scarcely  have  attempted 
to  reach  New  Orleans  by  the  river  even  if  no  fort  was 
to  be  passed.  Jackson  returned  to  the  city  after  six 
days'  absence,  with  little  apprehension  of  danger  from 
that  quarter. 

Desirous  of  seeing  everything  for  himself,  he  pro 
ceeded  immediately  upon  a  rapid  tour  of  inspection 
along  the  borders  of  Lake  Pontchartrain  and  Lake 
Borgne,  those  broad,  shallow  bays  which  afford  to  the 
commerce  of  New  Orleans  so  convenient  a  back  gate. 
He  visited  every  bayou  and  fortification,  suggesting  ad 
ditional  works  and  stimulating  the  zeal  of  the  people. 
He  had  then  completed  the  first  survey  of  his  position, 
and,  upon  the  whole,  the  result  was  assuring.  He 
thought  well  of  his  situation.  At  least,  he  had  little  fear 
of  a  surprise. 

Let  us  take  one  glance  at  the  lake  approaches  to 
the  Crescent  City  before  we  proceed.  Lake  Pontchar 
train  is  land-locked,  except  where  a  narrow  strait  con 
nects  it  with  Lake  Borgne.  That  strait  was  defended 
by  a  fortification  which,  it  was  hoped,  was  capable  of 
beating  off  the  enemy.  But  not  by  that  alone.  Lake 
Borgne,  too  shallow  for  the  admission  of  large  seagoing 
vessels,  would  be  crossed  by  the  enemy,  if  crossed  at  all, 
in  small  coasting  craft  or  ships'  boats.  Accordingly,  on 
that  lake  Commodore  Patterson  had  stationed  a  fleet  of 
gunboats,  six  in  number,  carrying  in  all  twenty-three 
guns  and  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  men,  the  whole 
under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  Thomas  Ap  Catesby 
Jones.  Lieutenant  Jones  was  ordered  to  give  prompt 
notice  of  the  enemy's  coming,  and  if  threatened  with 


JACKSON   AT   NEW  ORLEANS.  149 

attack  to  retire  before  the  enemy  and  lead  him  on  to 
the  entrance  of  the  strait  that  led  into  Lake  Pontchar- 
train,  and  there  anchor  and  fight  to  the  last  extremity. 
With  the  peculiar  advantages  of  position  which  the  place 
afforded,  it  was  confidently  expected  that  he  would  be 
able  to  defeat  any  force  of  small  craft  that  the  enemy 
were  likely  to  have  at  command. 

It  is  evident  that  Lake  Pontchartrain  was  universally 
regarded  at  the  time  as  the  most  natural  and  obvious 
means  of  reaching  the  city,  and  the  gunboats  were 
chiefly  relied  upon  for  its  defense.  Upon  them,  too,  the 
general  mainly  relied  for  the  first  information  of  the 
enemy's  arrival.  If  the  gunboats  failed,  the  fort  upon 
the  strait  was  open  to  attack.  If  the  gunboats  failed, 
the  vigilance  of  the  pickets  at  the  mouths  of  the  bayous 
was  the  sole  safeguard  against  a  surprise.  If  the  gun 
boats  failed,  Lake  Borgne  offered  no  obstacle  to  the 
approach  of  an  enemy  except  its  shallowness  and  its 
marshy  shores.  If  the  gunboats  failed,  nothing  could 
hinder  the  enemy  from  gaining  a  foothold  within  a  very 
few  miles  of  the  city,  unless  the  sentinels  should  descry 
their  approach  in  time  to  send  ample  notice  to  the  gen 
eral.  While  the  gunboats  continued  to  cruise  in  the 
lake  the  city  had  a  certain  ground  of  security,  and  could 
sleep  without  fear  of  waking  to  find  British  regiments 
under  its  windows. 

But  where  was  the  army  with  which  General  Jackson 
was  to  execute  his  design  of  hurling  into  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  the  invading  host  ?  Let  us  see  what  forces  he 
had  and  what  forces  he  expected. 

The  troops  then  in  or  near  New  Orleans,  and  its  sole 
defenders  as  late  as  the  middle  of  December,  were  these : 
Two  half-filled,  newly  raised  regiments  of  regular  troops, 
numbering  about  eight  hundred  men ;  Major  Planche's 
high-spirited  battalion  of  uniformed  volunteers,  about 
ii 


150  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

five  hundred  in  number;  two  regiments  of  State  militia, 
badly  equipped,  some  of  them  armed  with  fowling-pieces, 
others  with  muskets,  others  with  rifles,  some  without 
arms,  all  imperfectly  disciplined;  a  battalion  of  free 
men  of  color.  The  whole  amounted  to  about  two  thou 
sand  men.  Two  vessels  of  war  lay  at  anchor  in  the 
river,  the  little  schooner  Carolina  and  the  ship  Louisi 
ana,  neither  of  them  manned,  and  no  one  dreaming  of 
what  importance  they  were  to  prove.  Commodore  Pat 
terson  and  a  few  other  naval  officers  were  in  the  city, 
ready  when  the  hour  should  come,  and,  indeed,  already 
rendering  yeoman's  service  in  many  capacities.  General 
Coffee,  with  the  army  of  Pensacola,  was  approaching 
the  city  by  slow  marches,  contending  manfully  with  an 
inclement  season,  swollen  streams,  roads  almost  impass 
able,  and  scant  forage.  He  had  three  hundred  men, 
nearly  a  tenth  of  his  force,  sick  with  fever,  dysentery, 
and  exhaustion.  But  he  was  coming.  General  Carroll, 
burning  with  zeal  to  join  his  old  friend  and  commander, 
had  raised  a  volunteer  force  in  Tennessee  early  in  the 
autumn,  composed  of  men  of  substance  and  respecta 
bility,  and,  after  incredible  exertions  and  many  vexa 
tious  delays,  had  got  them  afloat  upon  the  Cumberland. 
The  State  had  been  so  stripped  of  arms  that  Carroll's 
regiment  had  not  a  weapon  to  every  ten  men.  So  many 
men  had  gone  to  the  wars  from  Tennessee,  that  Peter 
Cartwright,  that  valiant  son  of  the  Methodist  Church 
militant,  found  his  congregations  thin  and  his  ingather 
ings  of  new  members  far  below  the  average.  "  So  many 
of  our  members,"  he  says,  "went  into  the  war,  and 
deemed  it  their  duty  to  defend  our  common  country 
under  General  Jackson."  An  extraordinary  rise  of  the 
Cumberland,  such  as  seldom  occurs  in  November,  en 
abled  General  Carroll  to  make  swift  progress  into  the 
Ohio,  and  thence  into  the  Mississippi,  where  another 


JACKSON   AT   NEW  ORLEANS.  151 

piece  of  good  fortune  befell  him,  so  important  that  it 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  saved  New  Orleans.  He 
overtook  a  boat-load  of  muskets,  which  enabled  him  to 
arm  his  men  and  drill  them  daily  in  their  use  on  the 
roofs  of  his  fleet  of  arks. 

Two  thousand  Kentuckians,.  under  General  Thomas 
and  General  Adair,  were  also  on  their  way  down  the 
Mississippi — the  worst  provided  body  of  men,  perhaps, 
that  ever  went  fifteen  hundred  miles  from  home  to  help 
defend  a  sister  State.  A  few  rifles  they  had  among  them, 
but  no  clothing  suitable  for  the  season,  no  blankets,  no 
tents,  no  equipage.  Besides  food,  they  were  furnished 
with  just  one  article  of  necessity,  namely,  a  cooking- 
kettle  to  every  eighty  men !  In  a  flotilla  of  boats 
hastily  patched  together  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  they 
started  on  their  voyage,  carrying  provisions  enough  for 
exactly  half  the  distance.  They  were  agreeably  disap 
pointed,  however,  in  their  expectation  of  living  a  month 
on  half  rations,  by  overtaking  a  boat  loaded  with  flour, 
and,  thus  supplied,  they  went  on  their  way  ragged  but 
rejoicing. 

Such  was  General  Jackson's  situation,  such  the  pos 
ture  of  affairs  in  New  Orleans,  such  the  means  and  pros 
pects  of  defense,  on  the  i4th  of  December :  two  or 
three  thousand  troops  in  the  city ;  four  thousand  more 
within  ten  or  fifteen  days'  march  ;  six  gunboats  on  Lake 
Borgne ;  two  armed  vessels  on  the  river ;  a  small  garri 
son  of  regulars  at  Fort  St.  Philip ;  another  at  the  fort 
between  the  two  lakes ;  the  obstruction  of  the  bayous 
still  in  progress  ;  the  citizens  hopeful  and  resolute,  most 
of  them  at  work,  every  man  where  he  could  do  most  for 
the  cause  ;  the  general  returning  to  his  quarters  from 
his  tour  of  inspection. 

At  the  western  extremity  of  the  island  of  Jamaica 
there  are  two  headlands,  eight  miles  apart,  which  inclose 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Negril  Bay,  and  render  it  a  safe  and  convenient  anchor 
age.  It  was  the  rendezvous  of  the  British  fleet  designed 
for  the  capture  of  New  Orleans.  November  24, 1814,  was 
the  day  appointed  for  its  final  inspection  and  review  pre 
vious  to  its  departure  for  Lake  Borgne.  A  fleet  of  fifty 
armed  vessels,  many  of  them  of  the  first  magnitude, 
covered  the  waters  of  the  bay,  and  the  decks  of  the  ships 
were  crowded  with  red-coated  soldiers.  The  four  regi 
ments,  numbering,  with  their  sappers  and  artillerymen, 
three  thousand  one  hundred  men,  who  had  fought  the 
battle  of  Bladensburg,  burned  the  public  buildings  of 
Washington,  and  lost  their  general  near  Baltimore  the 
summer  before,  were  on  board  the  fleet.  Four  regiments, 
under  General  Keane,  had  come  from  England  direct  to 
re-enforce  this  army.  Two  regiments,  composed  in  part 
of  negro  troops,  supposed  to  be  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
climate  of  New  Orleans,  had  been  drawn  from  the  West 
Indies  to  join  the  expedition.  The  fleet  could  furnish,  if 
required,  a  body  of  fifteen  hundred  marines.  General 
Keane  found  himself,  on  his  arrival  from  Plymouth,  in 
command  of  an  army  of  seven  thousand  four  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  which  the  marines  of  the  fleet  could  swell 
to  eight  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty.  The  number 
of  sailors  could  scarcely  have  been  less  than  ten  thou 
sand,  of  whom  a  large  portion  could,  and  did,  assist  in 
the  operations  contemplated. 

Here  was  a  force  of  nearly  twenty  thousand  men,  a 
fleet  of  fifty  ships  carrying  a  thousand  guns,  and  per 
fectly  appointed  in  every  particular,  commanded  by 
officers  some  of  whom  had  grown  gray  in  victory.  And 
this  great  armament  was  about  to  be  directed  against 
swamp-environed  New  Orleans,  with  its  ragged,  half- 
armed  defenders  floating  down  the  Mississippi,  or  march 
ing  wearily  along  through  the  mire  and  flood  of  the  Gulf 
shores,  commanded  by  a  general  who  had  seen  fourteen 


JACKSON  AT   NEW   ORLEANS.  153 

months'  service  and  caught  one  glimpse  of  a  civilized 
foe.  The  greater  part  of  General  Keane's  army  were 
fresh  from  the  fields  of  the  Peninsula,  and  had  been  led 
by  victorious  Wellington  into  France,  to  behold  and 
share  in  that  final  triumph  of  British  arms.  To  these 
Peninsular  heroes  were  added  the  Ninety-third  High 
landers,  recently  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  one  of  the 
"  praying  regiments  "  of  the  British  army,  as  stalwart,  as 
brave,  as  completely  appointed  a  body  of  men  as  had 
stood  in  arms  since  Cromwell's  Ironsides  gave  liberty 
and  greatness  to  England.  Indeed,  there  was  not  a 
regiment  of  those  which  had  come  from  England  to 
form  this  army  which  had  not  won  brilliant  distinction 
in  strongly  contested  fields.  The  elite  of  England's 
army  and  navy  were  afloat  in  Negril  Bay  on  that  -bright 
day  of  November  when  the  last  review  took  place. 

The  day  after  the  review,  the  Tonnant,  the  Ramilies, 
and  two  of  the  brigs  weighed  anchor  and  put  to  sea. 
The  next  morning  the  rest  of  the  fleet  followed. 

Three  weeks  of  pleasant  sailing  in  those  tropical  seas 
brought  the  fleet  to  the  entrance  of  Lake  Borgne,  the 
shallowness  of  which  forbade  its  near  approach.  The 
American  gunboats  were  descried,  and  it  was  seen  at 
once  by  the  British  admiral  that  offensive  operations 
were  impossible  as  long  as  that  little  fleet  commanded 
the  lake.  A  force  of  fifty  large  open  boats,  containing 
a  thousand  men,  under  Captain  Lockyer,  were  dispatched 
from  the  British  fleet  against  the  gunboat  flotilla.  A 
dead  calm  prevented  its  retreat,  and  there  was  no  re 
source  but  to  fight,  in  the  open  lake,  this  great  arma 
ment.  A  most  gallant  and  resolute  defense  was  made 
by  Lieutenant  Jones  and  the  men  under  his  command ; 
but  nothing  could  avail  against  a  force  so  overwhelm 
ingly  superior,  and  the  little  fleet  was  compelled  to  sur 
render. 


154  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

This  obstacle  removed,  the  British  commander  pre 
pared  to  transport  his  army  across  the  broad  expanse  of 
the  lake  to  the  vicinity  of  New  Orleans,  a  distance  of 
eighty  miles.  An  advance  party  of  sixteen  hundred  men 
found  their  way  unobserved  to  the  mouth  of  the  Bayou 
Bienvenu,  a  sluggish  creek  about  twenty  miles  below 
the  city.  This  spot  had  early  attracted  the  attention 
of  General  Jackson.  It  was,  and  is,  a  lonely,  desolate 
place,  resorted  to  only  by  fishermen  and  tourists.  A 
little  colony  of  Spanish  fishermen  had  built  a  few  rude 
huts  there  for  their  accommodation  during  the  fishing 
season.  A  picket,  consisting  of  a  sergeant,  eight  white 
men,  and  three  mulattoes,  had  been  stationed  in  the  vil 
lage  by  General  Villere,  a  planter  of  the  neighborhood, 
to  whom  Jackson  had  assigned  jthe  duty  of  guarding  the 
spot.  No  one  anticipating  danger  in  that  quarter,  the 
picket  gradually  relaxed  their  vigilance.  Two  British 
officers,  Captain  Spencer  of  the  Carron  and  Lieutenant 
Peddie  of  the  army,  disguised  in  blue  shirts  and  old  tar 
paulins,  landed  without  exciting  suspicion,  bought  over 
the  Spanish  fishermen  and  their  boats,  rowed  up  the 
bayou,  reached  the  firm  land  along  the  banks  of  the 
great  river,  and  drank  of  its  waters.  Having  carefully 
noted  all  the  features  of  the  scene,  questioning  the  ne 
groes  and  others  whom  they  met,  they  returned  to  Pine 
Island,  whence  they  guided  the  advance  of  the  British 
army  to  the  fatal  plain. 

It  is  denied  by  all  American  writers  that  the  picket 
at  the  fisherman's  village  was  surprised  in  the  manner 
stated  by  English  historians.  Mr.  Alexander  Walker, 
who  collected  his  information  from  the  men  themselves, 
gives  this  account  of  what  transpired  on  the  night  of  the 
landing : 

"  Nothing  occurred  to  attract  the  notice  of  this  picket 
until  about  midnight  on  the  22d,  when  the  sentinel  on 


JACKSON  AT  NEW  ORLEANS.  155 

duty  in  the  village  called  his  comrade  and  informed  him 
that  some  boats  were  coming  up  the  bayou.  It  was  no 
false  alarm.  These  boats  composed  the  advanced  party 
of  the  British,  which  had  been  sent  forward  from  the 
main  body  of  the  flotilla,  under  Captain  Spencer,  to  re- 
connoiter  and  secure  the  village. 

"  The  Americans,  perceiving  the  hopelessness  of  de 
fending  themselves  against  so  superior  a  force,  retired 
for  concealment  behind  the  cabin,  where  they  remained 
until  the  barges  had  passed  them.  They  then  ran  out 
and  endeavored  to  reach  a  boat  by  which  they  might 
escape;  but  they  were  observed  by  the  British,  who  ad 
vanced  toward  them,  seized  the  boat  before  it  could  be 
dragged  into  the  water,  and  captured  four  of  the  picket. 
Four  others  were  afterward  taken  on  land.  Of  the  four 
remaining,  three  ran  into  the  canebrake,  thence  into  the 
prairie,  where  they  wandered  about  all  day,  until,  worn 
down  with  fatigue  and  suffering,  they  returned  to  the 
village,  happy  to  surrender  themselves  prisoners.  One 
only  escaped,  and  after  three  days  of  terrible  hardships 
and  constant  perils,  wandering  over  trembling  prairies, 
through  almost  impervious  canebrakes,  swimming  bay 
ous  and  lagoons,  and  living  on  reptiles  and  roots,  got 
safely  into  the  American  camp." 

Having  effected  a  landing,  the  British  army,  led 
by  General  Keane  himself,  began  a  slow  and  toilsome 
march  toward  the  city.  An  English  officer  describes  the 
advance  in  a  highly  interesting  manner.  "  It  was  not," 
he  says,  "  without  many  checks  that  we  were  able  to 
proceed.  Ditches  frequently  stopped  us  by  running  in  a 
cross-direction  too  wide  to  be  leaped,  and  too  deep  to 
be  forded ;  consequently,  on  all  such  occasions,  the 
troops  were  obliged  to  halt  till  bridges  were  hastily  con 
structed  of  such  materials  as  could  be  procured  and 
thrown  across.  Having  advanced  in  this  manner  for 


156  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

several  hours,  we  at  length  found  ourselves  approaching 
a  more  cultivated  region.  The  marsh  became  gradually 
less  and  less  continuous,  being  intersected  by  wider  spots 
of  firm  ground ;  the  reeds  gave  place  by  degrees  to 
wood,  and  the  wood  to  inclosed  fields.  Upon  these, 
however,  nothing  grew,  harvest  having  long  ago  ended. 
They  accordingly  presented  but  a  melancholy  appear 
ance,  being  covered  with  the  stubble  of  sugar  cane, 
which  resembled  the  reeds  which  we  had  just  quitted  in 
everything  except  altitude.  Nor  as  yet  was  any  house 
or  cottage  to  be  seen.  Though  we  knew,  therefore,  that 
human  habitations  could  not  be  far  off,  it  was  impossible 
to  guess  where  they  lay  or  how  numerous  they  might 
prove ;  and  as  we  could  not  tell  whether  our  guides 
might  not  be  deceiving  us,  and  whether  ambuscades 
might  not  be  laid  for  our  destruction  as  soon  as  we 
should  arrive  where  troops  could  conveniently  act,  our 
march  was  insensibly  conducted  with  increased  caution 
and  regularity. 

"  But  in  a  little  while  some  groves  of  orange  trees 
presented  themselves,  on  passing  which  two  or  three  farm 
houses  appeared.  Toward  these  our  advanced  companies 
immediately  hastened,  with  the  hope  of  surprising  the 
inhabitants  and  preventing  any  alarm  from  being  raised. 
Hurrying  on  at  double-quick  time,  they  surrounded  the 
buildings,  succeeded  in  securing  the  inmates,  and  capt 
ured  several  horses;  but,  becoming  rather  careless  in 
watching  their  prisoners,  one  man  contrived  to  effect 
his  escape.  Now,  then,  all  hope  of  eluding  observation 
might  be  laid  aside.  The  rumor  of  our  landing  would, 
we  knew,  spread  faster  than  we  could  march,  and  it  only 
remained  to  make  that  rumor  as  terrible  as  possible. 

"With  this  view,  the  column  was  commanded  to 
widen  its  files  and  to  present  as  formidable  an  appear 
ance  as  could  be  assumed.  Changing  our  order  in 


JACKSON  AT  NEW  ORLEANS.  157 

obedience  to  these  directions,  we  marched  not  in  sec 
tions  of  eight  or  ten  abreast,  but  in  pairs,  and  thus  con 
trived  to  cover  with  our  small  division  as  large  a  tract 
of  ground  as  if  we  had  mustered  thrice  our  present  num 
bers.  Our  steps  were  likewise  quickened,  that  we  might 
gain,  if  possible,  some  advantageous  position  where  we 
might  be  able  to  cope  with  any  force  that  might  attack 
us;  and,  thus  hastening  on,  we  soon  arrived  at  the  main 
road  which  leads  directly  to  New  Orleans.  Turning  to 
the  right,  we  then  advanced  in  the  direction  of  that  town 
for  about  a  mile,  when,  having  reached  a  spot  where  it 
was  considered  that  we  might  encamp  in  comparative 
safety,  our  little  column  halted,  the  men  piled  their  arms, 
and  a  regular  bivouac  was  formed. 

"  The  country  where  we  had  now  established  our 
selves  was  a  narrow  plain  of  about  a  mile  in  width, 
bounded  on  one  side  by  the  Mississippi  and  on  the  other 
by  the  marsh  from  which  we  had  just  emerged.  Toward 
the  open  ground  this  marsh  was  covered  with  dwarf-wood, 
having  the  semblance  of  a  forest  rather  than  a  swamp  ; 
but  on  trying  the  bottom  it  was  found  that  both  charac 
ters  were  united,  and  that  it  was  impossible  for  a  man 
to  make  his  way  among  the  trees,  so  boggy  was  the  soil 
upon  which  they  grew.  In  no  other  quarter,  however, 
was  there  a  single  hedgerow  or  plantation  of  any  kind, 
excepting  a  few  apple  and  other  fruit  trees  in  the  gar 
dens  of  such  houses  as  were  scattered  over  the  plain,  the 
whole  being  laid  out  in  large  fields  for  the  growth  of 
sugar  cane,  a  plant  which  seems  as  abundant  in  this 
part  of  the  world  as  in  Jamaica. 

"  Looking  up  toward  the  town,  which  we  at  this  time 
faced,  the  marsh  is  upon  your  right  and  the  river  upon 
your  left.  Close  to  the  latter  .runs  the  main  road,  fol 
lowing  the  course  of  the  stream  all  the  way  to  New  Or 
leans.  Between  the  road  and  the  water  is  thrown  up  a 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

lofty  and  strong  embankment,  resembling  the  dikes  in 
Holland,  and  meant  to  serve  a  similar  purpose,  by  means 
of  which  the  Mississippi  is  prevented  from  overflowing 
its  banks,  and  the  entire  flat  is  preserved  from  inun 
dation.  But  the  attention  of  a  stranger  is  irresistibly 
drawn  away  from  every  other  object  to  contemplate  the 
magnificence  of  this  noble  river.  Pouring  along  at  the 
prodigious  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour,  an  immense  body 
of  water  is  spread  out  before  you,  measuring  a  full  mile 
across  and  nearly  a  hundred  fathoms  in  depth.  What 
this  mighty  stream  must  be  near  its  mouth  I  can  hardly 
imagine,  for  we  were  here  upward  of  a  hundred  miles 
from  the  ocean." 

The  spot  upon  which,  at  noon  on  the  23d  of  Decem 
ber,  the  British  advance  halted  and  stacked  their  arms 
was  eight  miles  below  the  city,  and,  at  the  moment  of 
the  halt,  General  Jackson  had  received  no  intimation 
even  of  the  landing  of  an  enemy.  If  General  Keane 
had  pushed  on,  he  could  have  taken  New  Orleans  with 
out  firing  a  shot ;  for,  although  General  Coffee  and  Gen 
eral  Carroll  had  reached  the  town,  the  troops  under 
their  command  were  so  widely  scattered  in  and  above 
the  city  that  an  adequate  force  could  not  have  been  as 
sembled  in  time  to  resist  the  onset  of  the  foe. 

But  mark  :  "  One  man  contrived  to  effect  his  escape," 
records  the  British  officer  whose  narrative  we  have 
quoted  above.  How  many  a  gallant  life  hung  upon  the 
chances  of  that  one  man's  capture !  The  individual  in 
vested  with  such  sudden  and  extreme  importance  was 
young  Major  Gabriel  Viller6,  the  son  of  General  Villere", 
a  Creole  planter,  upon  whose  plantation  the  British  were 
then  halting.  Major  Villerd  it  was  who  had  stationed 
the  picket  at  the  mouth  of  the  bayou  by  which  the 
English  troops  had  gained  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  stood  now  upon  the  high-road  leading  to  the  prize 


JACKSON  AT  NEW  ORLEANS.  159 

they  were  in  search  of,  and  within  a  few  miles  of  it.  He 
made  all  haste  to  New  Orleans,  joined  on  his  way  by  two 
friends,  and  proceeded  to  headquarters.  Judge  Walker 
thus  relates  their  interview  with  the  general :  "  During 
all  the  exciting  events  of  this  campaign  Jackson  had 
barely  the  strength  to  stand  erect  without  support ;  his 
body  was  sustained  alone  by  the  spirit  within.  Ordinary 
men  would  have  shrunk  into  feeble  imbeciles  or  useless 
invalids  under  such  a  pressure.  The  disease  contracted 
in  the  swamps  of  Alabama  still  clung  to  him.  Reduced 
to  a  mere  skeleton,  unable  to  digest  his  food,  and  unre- 
freshed  by  sleep,  his  life  seemed  to  be  preserved  by 
some  miraculous  agency.  There,  in  the  parlor  of  his 
headquarters  in  Royal  Street,  surrounded  by  his  faithful 
and  efficient  aides,  he  worked  day  and  night,  organizing 
his  forces,  dispatching  orders,  receiving  reports,  and 
making  all  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the  defense 
of  the  city. 

"  Jackson  was  thus  engaged  at  half  past  one  o'clock 
p.  M.  on  the  23d  of  December,  1814,  when  his  attention 
was  drawn  from  certain  documents  he  was  carefully 
reading  by  the  sound  of  horses  galloping  down  the 
streets  with  more  rapidity  than  comported  with  the  or 
der  of  a  city  under  martial  law.  The  sounds  ceased  at 
the  door  of  his  headquarters,  and  the  sentinel  on  duty 
announced  the  arrival  of  three  gentlemen  who  desired 
to  see  the  general  immediately,  having  important  intelli 
gence  to  communicate. 

"  '  Show  them  in,'  ordered  the  general. 

"  The  visitors  proved  to  be  Mr.  Dussau  de  la  Croix, 
Major  Gabriel  ViHere",  and  Colonel  de  la  Ronde.  They 
were  stained  with  mud,  and  nearly  breathless  with  the 
rapidity  of  their  ride. 

"  *  What  news  do  you  bring,  gentlemen  ? '  eagerly 
asked  the  general. 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"'Important!  highly  important!'  responded  Mr.  de 
la  Croix.  '  The  British  have  arrived  at  Villere's  planta 
tion,  nine  miles  below  the  city,  and  are  there  encamped. 
Here  is  Major  Villere,  who  was  captured  by  them,  has 
escaped,  and  will  now  relate  his  story.' 

"The  major  accordingly  detailed  in  a  clear  and  per 
spicuous  manner  the  occurrences  we  have  related,  em 
ploying  his  mother  tongue,  the  French  language,  which 
De  la  Croix  translated  to  the  general.  At  the  close  of 
Major  Viller6's  narrative  the  general  exclaimed : 

"  '  By  the  Eternal,  they  shall  not  sleep  on  our  soil ! ' 

"  Then  courteously  inviting  his  visitors  to  refresh 
themselves,  and  sipping  a  glass  of  wine  in  compliment  to 
them,  he  turned  to  his  secretary  and  aides,  and  remarked : 

"  *  Gentlemen,  the  British  are  below ;  we  must  fight 
them  to-night ! '  " 

Jackson  proceeded  to  act  as  though  everything  had 
occurred  exactly  as  he  had  anticipated.  General  Coffee's 
brigade  was  still  encamped  near  the  spot  where  they  had 
first  halted,  four  or  five  miles  above  the  city.  Major 
Blanche's  battalion  was  at  the  Bayou  St.  John,  two  miles 
from  headquarters.  The  State  militia,  under  Governor 
Claiborne,  were  on  the  Gentilly  road,  three  miles  away ; 
the  regulars  were  in  the  city,  but  variously  disposed. 
General  Carroll  and  his  Tennesseeans  appear  to  have 
been  still  in  the  boats  that  brought  them  down  the  river. 
Commodore  Patterson,  too,  was  some  distance  off. 
General  Jackson  dispatched  a  messenger  to  each  of  the 
corps  under  his  command,  ordering  them  with  all  haste 
to  break  up  their  camp  and  march  to  positions  assigned 
them — General  Carroll  to  the  head  of  the  upper  branch 
of  the  Bienvenu,  Governor  Claiborne  to  a  point  farther 
up  the  Gentilly  road,  which  road  leads  from  the  Chef- 
Menteur  to  New  Orleans ;  the  rest  of  the  troops  to  a 
plantation  just  below  the  city.  Commodore  Patterson 


JACKSON  AT  NEW  ORLEANS.        161 

was  also  sent  for  and  requested  to  prepare  the  Carolina 
for  weighing  anchor  and  dropping  down  the  river. 

These  orders  issued,  the  general  sat  down  to  dinner 
and  ate  a  little  rice,  which  alone  his  system  could  then 
endure.  He  then  lay  down  upon  a  sofa  in  his  office 
and  dozed  for  a  short  time.  Before  three  o'clock  he 
mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to  the  lower  part  of  the 
city,  where  then  stood  Fort  St.  Charles,  on  ground  now 
occupied  by  the  Branch  Mint  Building..  Before  the 
gates  of  the  fort  he  took  his  station,  waiting  to  see  the 
troops  pass  on  their  way  to  the  vicinity  of  the  enemy's 
position  and  to  give  his  final  orders  to  the  various 
commanders.  Drawn  up  near  him  was  one  of  the  two 
regiments  of  regulars,  the  Forty-fourth  Infantry,  Col 
onel  Ross,  mustering  three  hundred  and  thirty-one  mus 
kets.  Around  the  general  were  gathered  his  six  aides 
— Captain  Butler,  Captain  Reid,  Captain  Chotard,  Ed 
ward  Livingston,  Mr.  Davezac,  and  Mr.  Duplessis.  The 
other  regiment  of  regulars,  the  Seventh  Infantry,  Major 
Piere,  four  hundred  and  sixty-five  muskets,  had  already 
marched  down  the  road  to  guard  it  against  the  enemy's 
advance.  With  them  were  sixty-six  marines,  twenty- 
two  artillerymen,  and  two  six-pounders,  under  Colonel 
McRea  and  Lieutenant  Spotts,  of  the  regular  artillery. 
Captain  Beal's  famous  company  of  New  Orleans  rifle 
men,  composed  of  merchants  and  lawyers  of  the  city, 
were  also  below,  defending  the  high-road.  A  cloud  of 
dust  on  the  levee  and  the  thunder  of  horses'  feet  soon 
announced  to  the  expectant  general  the  approach  of 
cavalry.  Colonel  Hinds,  of  the  Mississippi  Dragoons, 
emerged  from  the  dust-cloud,  galloping  at  the  head  of 
his  troop,  which  he  led  swiftly  by  to  its  designated 
post.  Coffee  with  his  Tennesseeans  was  not  far  behind. 
Halting  at  the  general's  side,  he  conversed  with  him  for 
a  few  minutes,  and  then,  rejoining  his  men,  gave  the 


1 62  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

word,  "  Forward  at  a  gallop  !  "  and  the  long  line  of  back 
woodsmen  swept  rapidly  past.  Next  came  into  view  a 
party-colored  host  on  foot,  at  a  run,  which  proved  to  be 
Major  Planch^'s  fine  battalion  of  uniformed  companies. 
"Ah!"  cried  Jackson  to  his  aide  Davezac,  "here  come 
the  brave  Creoles."  They  had  run  all  the  way  from  the 
Fort  St.  John,  and  came  breathless  into  the  general's 
presence.  In  a  moment  they  too  had  received  their 
orders,  and  were  again  in  motion.  A  battalion  of  col 
ored  freemen,  under  Major  Dacquin,  and  a  small  body 
of  Choctaw  Indians,  under  Captain  Jugeant,  arrived, 
halted,  passed  on,  and  the  general  had  seen  his  available 
force  go  by.  The  number  of  troops  that  went  that  after 
noon  to  meet  the  enemy  was  twenty-one  hundred  and 
thirty-one,  of  whom  considerably  more  than  half  had 
never  been  in  action. 

The  commanders  of  the  different  corps  had  all  re 
ceived  the  same  simple  orders :  to  advance  as  far  as  the 
Rodriguez  Canal,  six  miles  below  the  city  and  two 
miles  above  the  ViHere*  plantation,  there  to  halt,  take 
positions,  and  wait  for  orders  to  close  with  the  enemy. 
The  Rodriguez  Canal  was  no  more  than  a  wide,  shallow 
ditch,  which  extended  across  the  firm  ground  from  the 
river  to  the  swamp. 

The  last  corps  of  the  army  had  disappeared  in  the 
distance,  and  still  the  general  lingered  before  the  gates 
of  Fort  St.  Charles,  looking,  with  a  slight  expression  of 
impatience  on  his  countenance,  toward  that  part  of  the 
river  where  the  sloop  of  war  Carolina  was  anchored. 
He  saw  her  at  length  weigh  her  anchor  and  move  slowly 
down  the  stream.  She  had  been  manned  within  the 
last  few  days,  and  well  manned,  as  it  proved,  though 
some  of  her  crew  only  learned  their  duty  by  doing  it. 
Captain  Henly  commanded  the  little  vessel.  Commo 
dore  Patterson,  however,  was  in  no  mood  to  stay  in  New 


JACKSON  AT  NEW  ORLEANS.        163 

Orleans  on  such  a  night,  and  so  went  in  her  to  the  scene 
of  action. 

The  general  had  no  sooner  seen  the  Carolina  under 
way,  than  he  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  and  galloped  down 
the  road  by  which  the  troops  had  gone,  followed  by 
all  his  staff  except  Captain  Butler.  Much  against  his 
will,  Captain  Butler  was  appointed  to  command  in  the 
city  that  night.  It  was  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
when  the  Carolina  left  her  anchorage,  and  General 
Jackson  rode  away  from  before  the  gates  of  Fort  St. 
Charles.  The  day  was  Friday. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

NIGHT    BATTLE    OF    DECEMBER    230. 

Four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. — Most  of  the  Ameri 
can  troops  have  reached  the  Rodriguez  Canal ;  others 
are  coming  up  every  moment.  They  are  all  on  or  near 
the  high-road  which  runs  along  the  river's  bank.  The 
Second  Division  of  the  British  army,  consisting  of  the 
Twenty-first,  the  Forty-fourth,  and  the  Ninety-third 
Highlanders,  is  nearing  the  fishermen's  village  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Bayou  Bienvenu.  The  party  in  advance 
is  quiescent  and  unsuspecting  on  and  about  the  Villere 
plantation.  General  Keane  and  Colonel  Thornton  are 
pacing  the  piazza  of  the  Viller£  mansion,  Keane  satisfied 
with  his  position,  Thornton  distrusting  it. 

Half  past  four. — The  first  American  scouting  party, 
consisting  of  five  mounted  riflemen,  advance  toward  the 
British  camp  to  reconnoiter.  They  advance  too  far,  and 
retire  with  the  loss  of  one  horse  killed  and  two  men 
wounded.  The  first  blood  of  the  land  campaign  is  shed; 
Thomas  Scott,  the  name  of  the  first  wounded  man.  Ma 
jor  Blanche's  battalion  of  Creole  volunteers  are  now  be 
ginning  to  arrive. 

Five  o'clock. — The  general  is  with  his  little  army, 
serene,  confident.  He  believes  he  is  about  to  capture 
or  destroy  those  red-coats  in  his  front,  and  he  communi 
cates  some  portion  of  his  own  assurance  to  those  around 
him.  First,  Colonel  Hayne,  inspector-general  of  the 
army,  shall  go  forward  with  Colonel  Hinds's  hundred 


NIGHT  BATTLE  OF  DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD.   ^5 

horsemen,  to  see  what  he  can  of  the  enemy's  posi 
tion  and  numbers.  The  hundred  horsemen  advance; 
dash  into  the  British  pickets;  halt  while  Colonel  Hayne 
takes  a  survey  of  the  scene  before  him;  wheel,  and 
gallop  back.  Colonel  Hayne  reports  the  enemy's 
strength  at  two  thousand.  But  what  are  these  printed 
bills  stuck  upon  the  plantation  fences? 

"  LOUISIANIANS  !  REMAIN  QUIET  IN  YOUR  HOUSES. 
YOUR  SLAVES  SHALL  BE  PRESERVED  TO  YOU,  AND  YOUR 

PROPERTY    RESPECTED.       WE    MAKE    WAR    ONLY   AGAINST 

AMERICANS!  " 

Signed  by  General  Keane  and  Admiral  Cochrane. 
A  negro  was  overtaken  by  the  returning  cavalrymen, 
with  printed  copies  of  this  proclamation  upon  his  person, 
in  Spanish  and  French.  Twilight  deepens  into  dark 
ness.  It  is  the  shortest  day  of  the  year  but  two.  The 
moon  rises  hazy  and  dim,  yet  bright  enough  for  that 
night's  work,  if  it  will  only  last.  The  American  host  is 
very  silent — silent,  because  such  is  the  order;  silent, 
because  they  are  in  no  mood  to  chatter.  The  more 
provident  and  lucky  of  the  men  eat  and  drink  what 
they  have,  but  most  of  them  neither  eat  nor  hunger. 
As  the  night  drew  on  the  British  watch  fires,  numerous 
and  brilliant,  became  visible,  disclosing  completely  their 
position,  and  lighting  the  Americans  the  way  they  were 
to  go. 

Six  o'clock. — The  general-in-chief  has  completed  his 
scheme,  and  part  of  it  is  in  course  of  execution.  It  was 
the  simple  old  backwoods  plan  of  cornering  the  enemy  ; 
the  best  possible  for  the  time  and  place.  Coffee,  with 
his  own  riflemen,  with  Beale's  New  Orleans  sharp-shoot 
ers,  with  Hinds's  dragoons,  was  to  leave  the  river's  side, 
march  across  the  plain  to  the  cypress  swamp,  turn  down 
toward  the  enemy,  wheel  again,  attack  them  in  the  flank 
and  crowd  them  to  the  river.  With  General  Coffee,  as 
12 


!66  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

guide  and  aide,  went  Colonel  de  la  Ronde,  the  proprietor 
of  one  of  the  plantations  embraced  in  the  circle  of  oper 
ations.  A  circuitous  march  of  five  miles,  over  moist, 
rough,  obstructed  ground,  lay  before  General  Coffee, 
and  he  was  already  in  motion.  Jackson,  with  the  main 
fighting  strength  of  the  army,  was  to  keep  closer  to  the 
river  and  open  an  attack  directly  upon  the  enemy's 
position ;  the  artillery  and  marines  upon  the  high-road  ; 
the  two  regiments  of  regulars  to  the  left  of  the  road ; 
Planche's  battalion,  Dacquin's  colored  freemen,  Jugeant's 
Choctaws  still  farther  to  the  left,  so  as  to  complete  the 
line  of  attack  across  the  plain.  The  Carolina  was  to 
anchor  opposite  the  enemy's  camp,  close  in  shore,  and 
pour  broadsides  of  grape  and  round  shot  into  their 
midst.  From  the  Carolina  was  to  come  the  signal  of 
attack.  Not  a  shot  to  be  fired,  not  a  sound  uttered, 
till  the  schooner's  guns  were  heard.  Then,  Coffee, 
Planche,  regulars,  marines,  Indians,  negroes,  artillery, 
Jackson,  all  advance  at  once,  and  girdle  the  foe  with 
fire! 

Half  past  six. — The  Carolina  arrives  opposite  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  position.  Edward  Livingston  goes  on 
board  of  her,  explains  the  plan  of  attack,  communicates 
the  general's  orders  to  Commodore  Patterson,  and  re 
turns  to  his  place  at  the  general's  side.  "  It  continuing 
calm,"  says  the  commodore  in  his  official  dispatch,  "  got 
out  sweeps,  and  a  few  minutes  after,  having  been  fre 
quently  hailed  by  the  enemy's  sentinels,  anchored,  veered 
out  a  long  scope  of  cable,  and  sheered  close  in  shore 
abreast  of  their  camp."  The  commodore's  "few  min 
utes"  was  three-quarters  of  an  hour  at  least,  according 
to  the  other  accounts.  He  had  more  than  two  miles 
to  go  before  reaching  the  spot  where  he  "  veered  out  the 
long  reach  of  cable  " — itself  an  operation  not  done  in 
a  moment. 


NIGHT  BATTLE  OF  DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD,  ify 

Seven  o'clock. — The  night  has  grown  darker  than 
was  hoped.  Coffee  has  made  his  way  across  the  plain. 
Behind  a  ditch  separating  two  plantations  he  is  dis 
mounting  his  men.  Cavalry  could  not  be  employed 
upon  such  ground  in  the  dark.  Leaving  the  horses 
in  charge  of  a  hundred  of  his  riflemen,  he  is  about  to 
march  with  the  rest  to  find  and  charge  the  enemy.  He 
has  still  a  long  way  to  go,  and  wants  a  full  hour,  at 
least,  to  come  up  with  them.  General  Coffee,  a  man 
of  few  words,  and  intent  on  the  business  of  the  hour 
delivers  an  oration  in  something  like  these  words : 

"  Men,  you  have  often  said  you  could  fight ;  now  is 
the  time  to  prove  it.  Don't  waste  powder.  Be  sure  of 
your  mark  before  firing." 

Half  past  seven. — The  first  gun  from  the  Carolina 
booms  over  the  plain,  followed  in  quick  succession  by 
seven  others — the  schooner's  first  broadside.  It  lays 
low  upon  the  moist  delta  a  hundred  British  soldiers,  as 
some  compute  or  guess.  Jackson  hears  it,  and  yet 
withholds  the  expected  word  of  command.  Coffee 
hears  it  too  soon,  but  he  makes  haste  to  respond.  The 
English  division  then  landing  at  the  fishermen's  village 
hear  it  and  hurry  tumultuously  toward  the  scene  of  ac 
tion,  and  the  boats  go  back  to  Pine  Island  with  the 
news.  New  Orleans  hears  it.  A  great  crowd  of  women, 
children,  old  men,  and  slaves,  assembled  in  the  square 
before  the  State  House,  see  the  flash  and  listen  to  the 
roar  of  the  guns. 

Other  broadsides  follow,  as  fast  as  men  can  load. 
And  yet,  strange  to  say,  the  people  on  board  the  terrible 
schooner  knew  nothing  all  that  night  of  the  effect  their 
fire  produced ;  knew  not  whether  they  had  contributed 
anything  or  nothing  to  the  final  issue  of  the  strife. 
Commodore  Patterson  simply  says :  "  Commenced  a 
heavy  (and,  as  I  have  since  learned,  most  destructive) 


!68  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

fire  from  our  starboard  battery  and  small-arms,  which 
was  returned  most  spiritedly  by  the  enemy  with  con- 
greve  rockets  and  musketry  from  their  whole  force, 
when,  after  about  forty  minutes  of  most  incessant  fire, 
the  enemy  was  silenced.  The  fire  from  our  battery  was 
continued  till  nine  o'clock  upon  the  enemy's  flank  while 
engaged  in  the  field  with  our  army,  at  which  hour  ceased 
firing,  supposing,  from  the  distance  of  the  enemy's  fire 
(for  it  was  too  dark  to  see  anything  on  shore),  that  they 
had  retreated  beyond  the  range  of  our  guns.  Weighed 
and  swept  across  the  river,  in  hopes  of  a  breeze  the  next 
morning,  to  enable  me  to  renew  the  attack  upon  the 
enemy  should  they  be  returned  to  their  encampment." 

So  much  for  the  Carolina.  What  she  did,  we  know. 
But  I  defy  any  living  being  to  say  with  positiveness  and 
in  detail  what  occurred  on  shore.  The  contradictions 
between  the  British  and  American  accounts,  and  between 
the  various  American  narratives,  are  so  irreconcilable, 
that  the  narrator  who  cares  only  for  the  truth  pauses 
bewildered  and  knows  not  what  to  believe.  But  exact 
ness  of  detail  is  not  important  in  describing  this  unique 
battle.  A  more  successful  night  attack,  or  one  that 
more  completely  gained  not  the  object  proposed  but 
the  objects  most  necessary  to  be  gained,  was  never 
made.  That  fact  alone  might  suffice.  Yet,  let  us  peer 
into  the  thickening  darkness,  and  see  what  we  can  dis 
cern  of  the  credible,  the  probable,  and  the  certain,  bor 
rowing  other  people's  eyes  when  our  own  fail. 

Jackson  opened  his  attack  with  curious  deliberation. 
He  waited  patiently  for  the  Carolina's  guns.  And  when 
the  thunder  of  her  broadside  broke  the  silence  of  the 
night,  he  still  waited.  For  ten  minutes,  which  seemed 
thirty,  he  let  the  little  schooner  wage  the  combat  alone, 
hoping  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  enemy  exclusively 
upon  her. 


NIGHT  BATTLE  OF  DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD.  169 

Then — "  FORWARD  !  " 

Down,  the  high-road,  close  to  the  river,  with  the 
Seventh  Regiment,  the  artillery,  and  the  marines,  Jackson 
advanced.  A  light  breeze  from  the  river  blew  over  the 
plain  the  smoke  of  the  Carolina's  incessant  fire,  to  which 
was  added  a  fog  then  beginning  to  rise  from  the  river. 
Lighted  only  by  the  flash  of  the  guns  and  the  answering 
musketry  and  rockets,  the  general  pushed  on,  arid  had 
approached  within  less  than  a  mile  of  the  British  head 
quarters,  when  the  company  in  advance,  under  Lieuten 
ant  McClelland,  received  a  brisk  fire  from  a  British  out 
post  lying  in  a  ditch  behind  a  fence  near  the  road. 
Colonel  Platt,  quartermaster-general,  who  was  with  this 
company,  ran  to  the  front,  and,  seeing  the  red-coats  by 
the  flash  of  their  own  guns,  cried  out  : 

"  Come  out  and  fight  like  men,  on  open  ground !  " 

Without  giving  them  time  to  comply  with  this  invita 
tion,  he  poured  a  volley  into  their  midst,  and  kept  up  an 
active  fire  for  four  or  five  minutes.  The  British  picket 
gave  way,  and  over  the  fence  leaped  Platt's  company, 
and  occupied  the  post  they  had  abandoned.  This  was 
the  first  success  of  the  battle,  but  it  was  very  short.  In 
a  few  minutes  a  large  party  of  British,  two  hundred  it 
is  said,  came  up  to  regain  their  lost  position,  and  opened 
a  fire  upon  the  victorious  company.  Its  gallant  com 
mander,  Lieutenant  McClelland,  fell  dead  ;  Colonel  Platt 
was  wounded ;  a  sergeant  was  killed ;  several  of  the 
men  were  wounded,  and  it  was  going  hardly  with  the 
little  band.  In  the  nick  of  time,  however,  the  two 
pieces  of  cannon  were  placed  in  position  on  the  road 
and  began  a  most  vigorous  fire,  relieving  the  advanced 
company,  and  compelling  the  enemy  to  keep  his  distance. 
A  second  time  the  Americans  were  successful,  for  a 
moment.  Soon  a  formidable  force  of  British  came  up 
the  road,  and  opened  fire  upon  the  artillerymen  and 


1 70  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

marines,  evidently  designing  to  take  the  guns.  The 
marines  recoiled  before  the  leaden  tempest.  The  horses 
attached  to  the  cannon,  wounded  by  the  fire,  reared, 
plunged,  became  unmanageable,  and  one  of  the  pieces 
was  overturned  into  the  ditch  by  the  side  of  the  road. 
It  was  a  moment  of  frightful  and  nearly  fatal  confusion. 
Jackson  dashed  into  the  fire,  accompanied  by  two  of  his 
aides,  and  roared  out  with  that  startling  voice  of  his  : 
"  Save  the  guns,  my  boys,  at  every  sacrifice  !  " 
The  presence  of  the  general  restored  and  rallied  the 
marines  as  another  company  of  the  Seventh  came  up, 
and  the  guns  were  "protected,"  says  Major  Eaton — 
which  probably  means  drawn  out  of  danger.  All  this 
was  the  work  of  a  very  few  minutes.  The  other  com 
panies  of  the  Seventh  and  the  whole  of  the  Forty- 
fourth,  were  meanwhile  engaged  in  a  miscellaneous,  de 
sultory,  indescribable  manner. 

General  Coffee,  though  the  signal  came  a  little  too 
early  for  him,  was  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  sooner 
than  he  had  expected.  Having  reached  the  Villere* 
plantation,  he  wheeled  toward  the  river  and  marched 
in  a  widely  extended  line,  each  man  to  fight,  in  the 
Indian  fashion,  on  his  own  account.  He  expected  to 
come  up  with  the  enemy  near  the  river's  bank,  and 
would  have  done  so  if  the  Carolina  had  begun  her  fire 
half  an  hour  later.  The  enemy,  however,  had  then  had 
time  to  recover  from  their  confusion,  to  abandon  the 
river,  and  to  form  in  various  positions  across  the  plain. 
General  Coffee  had  not  advanced  a  hundred  yards  from 
the  swamp  before  he  was  astonished  to  find  himself  in 
the  presence  of  the  British  Eighty-fifth.  "A  war  of 
duels  and  detachments  "  ensued,  with  varying  fortune; 
but  the  deadly  and  unerring  fire  of  Coffee's  cool  rifle 
men,  accustomed  from  of  old  to  night  warfare  with 
Indians,  acquainted  with  all  the  arts  of  covert  and 


NIGHT  BATTLE  OF  DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD. 


I/I 


approach,  was  too  much  for  the  British  infantry.  From 
orange  grove,  from  behind  negro  huts,  the  Eighty-fifth 
slowly  retired  toward  the  river,  until  at  length  they  took 
post  behind  an  old  levee  near  the  high-road.  Bayonets 
alone  could  dislodge  them  thence,  and  the  Tennesseeans 
had  no  bayonets.  Coffee,  too,  retired  to  cover,  and  sent 
to  the  general  for  orders. 

Captain  J.  N.  Cooke,  a  British  officer,  who  wrote  a 
narrative  of  this  unexampled  campaign,  gives  a  lively 
picture  of  the  battle  at  the  time  when  Coffee  was  fight 
ing  his  way  across  the  plain :  "  Lumps  and  crowds  of 
American  militia,  who  were  armed  with  rifles  and  long 
hunting-knives  for  close  quarters,  now  crossed  the 
country,  and  by  degrees  getting  nearer  to  the  head 
quarters  of  the  British,  they  were  met  by  some  com 
panies  of  the  rifle  corps  and  the  Eighty-fifth  Light  In 
fantry  ;  and  here  again  such  confusion  took  place  as 
seldom  occurs  in  war — the  bayonet  of  the  British  and 
the  knife  of  the  American  were  in  active  opposition  at 
close  quarters  during  this  eventful  night,  and,  as  pro 
nounced  by  the  Americans,  it  was  '  rough  and  tumble.' 

"  The  darkness  was  partially  dispelled  for  a  few  mo 
ments  now  and  then  by  the  flashes  of  firearms,  and 
whenever  the  outlines  of  men  were  distinguishable  the 
Americans  called  out, '  Don't  fire — we  are  your  friends  ! ' 
Prisoners  were  taken  and  retaken.  The  Americans  were 
litigating  and  wrangling,  and  protesting  that  they  were 
not  taken  fairly,  and  were  hugging  their  firearms,  and 
bewailing  their  separation  from  a  favorite  rifle  that  they 
wished  to  retain  as  their  lawful  property. 

"  The  British  soldiers,  likewise,  hearing  their  mother 
tongue  spoken,  were  captured  by  this  deception ;  when 
such  mistakes  being  detected,  the  nearest  American  re 
ceived  a  knock-down  blow,  and  in  this  manner  prisoners 
on  both  sides,  having  escaped,  again  joined  in  the  fray, 


Ij2  GENERAL  JACKSON.    . 

calling  out  lustily  for  their  respective  friends.  Here  were 
fighting  and  straggling  flashes  of  fire  darting  through  the 
gloom  like  the  tails  of  so  many  comets. 

"At  this  most  remarkable  night  encounter  the  British 
were  fighting  on  two  sides  of  a  ragged  triangle,  their 
left  face  pounded  by  the  fire  from  the  sloop  and  their 
right  face  engaged  with  the  American  land  forces.  Hal- 
len  was  still  fighting  in  front  at  the  apex. 

"  At  one  time  the  Americans  pushed  round  Hallen's 
right  and  got  possession  of  the  high-road  behind  him, 
where  they  took  Major  Mitchell  and  thirty  riflemen 
going  to  his  assistance.  But  Hallen  was  inexorable,  and 
at  no  time  had  more  than  one  hundred  men  at  his  dis 
posal  ;  the  riflemen  coming  up  from  the  rear  by  twos 
and  threes  to  his  assistance  when  he  had  lost  nearly  half 
his  picket  in  killed  and  wounded.  And  behind  him  was 
such  confusion,  that  an  English  artillery  officer  declared 
that  the  flying  illumination  encircling  him  was  so  unac 
countably  strange,  that  had  he  not  pointed  his  brass 
cannon  to  the  front  at  the  beginning  of  the  fight  he 
could  not  have  told  which  was  the  proper  front  of  battle 
(as  the  English  soldiers  were  often  firing  one  upon  the 
other,  as  well  as  the  Americans),  except  by  looking  to 
ward  the  muzzle  of  his  three-pounder,  which  he  dared 
not  fire  from  the  fear  of  bringing  down  friends  and  foes 
by  the  same  discharge,  seeing,  as  he  did,  the  darkness 
suddenly  illuminated  across  the  country  by  the  flashing 
of  muskets  at  every  point  of  the  compass." 

Such  were  the  scenes  enacted  on  the  plains  of  the 
delta  in  the  evening  of  December  23,  1814,  for  about 
the  space  of  an  hour  and  a  half. 

Nine  o'clock. — The  Carolina,  as  we  have  seen,  ceases 
her  fire.  The  Second  Division  of  English  troops  has 
arrived  and  mingled  in  the  battle,  more  than  repairing 
the  casualties  of  the  night  in  the  English  army.  The 


NIGHT  BATTLED  OF  DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD.   173 

fog,  rising  from  the  river,  has  spread  densely  over  the 
field,  first  enveloping  Jackson's  division,  which  was  near 
est  the  river,  then  rolling  over  the  entire  plain.  The 
general  has  heard  nothing  of  General  Coffee  since  he 
parted  with  him  at  six  o'clock.  He  concludes  now  to 
suspend  all  operations  till  the  dawn  of  day.  Coffee's 
messenger  finds  the  general  at  length,  and  departs  with 
an  order  for  General  Coffee  to  withdraw  his  men  from 
the  field  and  rejoin  the  right  wing  with  all  dispatch. 

Ten  o'clock. — The  American  troops  have  retired,  and 
are  spread  over  the  plain  a  mile  or  more  from  the  scene 
of  conflict.  The  wounded,  all  of  them  that  can  be  found, 
are  brought  in  and  conveyed  toward  the  city.  The  in 
habitants  of  New  Orleans  have  learned  enough  of  the 
issue  of  the  fight  to  allay  their  apprehensions  of  imme 
diate  danger ;  but  women  still  sit  at  home  or  flit  about 
the  streets  in  an  agony  of  suspense  to  learn  something 
of  the  fate  of  fathers,  husbands,  and  brothers.  The  ar 
rival  of  British  prisoners  is  noised  about,  cheering  all 
but  those  who  have  staked  more  than  life  in  the  contest. 
General  Jackson  has  as  yet  no  thought  but  to  renew 
the  battle  the  moment  it  is  light  enough  to  find  the  foe, 
and  to  that  end  sends  a  dispatch  to  General  Carroll, 
who  is  guarding  the  city  from  attack  from  above,  order 
ing  him,  if  no  sign  of  an  enemy  has  appeared  in  that 
quarter,  to  join  the  main  body  instantly  with  all  his 
force. 

The  battle  over,  we  can  reckon  up  its  cost,  while  the 
troops,  reassembled,  are  eagerly  narrating  their  several 
adventures  or  performing  sad  duties  to  wounded  com 
rades  and  the  dead.  The  British  have  lost  to-night,  ac 
cording  to  General  Keane's  official  report,  forty-six  killed, 
one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  wounded,  and  sixty-four 
prisoners  and  deserters.  Lieutenant  De  Lacy  Evans, 
afterward  member  of  Parliament,  and  more  recently  one 


GENERAL  JACKSON, 

of  the  heroes  of  the  Crimea,  was  among  the  wounded. 
The  American  loss  was — killed,  twenty-four;  wounded, 
one  hundred  and  fifteen ;  missing,  seventy-four. 

One  o'clock  in  the  morning. — Silence  reigns  in  both 
camps.  There  have  been  occasional  alarms  during  the 
night  and  some  firing,  enough  to  keep  both  armies  on 
the  alert.  Noise  of  an  approaching  host  from  the  city 
is  heard  soon  after  one,  which  proves  to  be  General 
Carroll  and  his  men,  who  have  marched  down  with  Ten- 
nesseean  swiftness.  But  Jackson  has  changed  his  mind. 
British  deserters  have  brought  information  of  the  arrival 
of  re-enforcements  to  General  Keane's  army,  and  of  still 
further  forces  to  arrive  on  the  morrow.  Is  it  prudent 
to  risk  the  campaign  and  the  city  upon  an  open  fight 
between  twenty-five  hundred  raw  troops  without  bayo 
nets  and  six  or  seven  thousand  disciplined  British  soldiers 
who  have  bayonets  and  know  how  to  use  them  ?  That 
question,  argued  around  the  general's  bivouac  at  mid 
night,  admitted  of  but  one  answer.  It  was  resolved,  then, 
in  the  midnight  council  on  the  fog-covered  field,  to  re 
tire  at  daybreak  to  the  old  position  behind  the  Rodriguez 
Canal,  there  to  throw  up  whatever  line  of  defense  might 
be  possible  and  await  the  enemy's  attack.  The  two 
men-of-war  shall  anchor  off  the  levee  and  cover  the 
high-road  with  their  guns.  If  necessary,  the  levee  shall 
be  pierced  and  the  plain  between  the  two  armies  flooded. 
Hinds's  dragoons,  who  could  not  join  in  the  night  battle, 
shall  hold  the  position  between  the  two  armies  and  con 
ceal  the  contemplated  movements. 

Slowly,  very  slowly,  the  hours  of  darkness  wore  away. 
"  The  night,"  says  Nolte,  "  was  very  cold.  Wearied  by 
our  long  march  and  standing  in  the  open  field,  we  all 
wanted  to  make  a  fire,  and  at  length,  at  the  special  re 
quest  of  our  major,  permission  to  kindle  one  was  ob 
tained.  Within  twenty  minutes  we  saw  innumerable 


NIGHT  BATTLE  OF  DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD. 


175 


watch  fires  blazing  up  in  a  line  extending  like  a  crescent 
from  the  shores  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  woods,  and 
stretching  far  away  behind  the  plantations  of  Villere", 
Lacoste,  and  others  occupied  by  the  English,  on  whose 
minds,  as  well  as  on  our  own,  the  impression  must  have 
been  produced  that  Jackson  had  many  more  troops 
under  his  command  and  near  the  spot  than  any  one  had 
supposed." 

The  fires  were  not  lighted  too  soon,  for  in  the  fight 
many  of  Coffee's  men  had  thrown  away  their  long  coats 
and  stood  shivering  through  the  night  in  their  shirt 
sleeves.  Indeed,  both  brigades  of  Tennesseeans  were  in 
sorry  plight  with  regard  to  clothes  when  they  arrived, 
and  few  came  out  of  the  battle  with  a  whole  garment. 
There  will  be  busy  sewing-circles  to-morrow  in  New 
Orleans,  seasoned  with  tales  of  the  brave  deeds  done  by 
the  ragged  heroes  of  the  night  battle.  And  all  over  the 
field  shall  wander,  after  dawn,  Tennesseeans  hunting  up 
lost  coats,  lost  tomahawks  and  knives,  lost  horses,  and, 
alas !  lost  comrades,  cold  forever,  for  whom  there  will 
be  proud  mourning  in  the  log-houses  of  Tennessee. 
"  These  poor  fellows,"  wrote  a  British  officer,  who  with 
General  Keane  walked  over  part  of  the  field,  "  presented 
a  strange  appearance.  Their  hair,  eyebrows,  and  lashes 
were  thickly  covered  with  hoarfrost  or  rime,  their  blood 
less  cheeks  vying  with  its  whiteness.  Few  were  dressed 
in  military  uniforms,  and  most  of  them  bore  the  appear 
ance  of  farmers  or  husbandmen.  Peace  to  their  ashes ! 
They  had  nobly  died  in  defending  their  country." 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

SHOVELS    AND    WHEELBARROWS. 

THE  Rodriguez  Canal  was  an  old  mill  race  partly 
filled  up  and  grown  over  with  grass.  In  the  early  days 
of  the  colony  the  planters  built  their  mills  on  the  levee, 
and  obtained  water  power  by  cutting  canals  from  the 
river  to  the  swamp,  through  which  poured  an  abundant 
flood  during  the  periodical  swellings  of  the  river.  The 
Rodriguez  Canal  crossed  the  plain  where  the  plain  was 
narrowest ;  and  this  circumstance  it  was  that  rendered 
the  position  chosen  by  General  Jackson  for  his  line  of 
intrenchments  the  best  which  the  vicinity  afforded. 

Daylight  dawned.  The  fog  slowly  lifted.  Never 
was  the  light  of  day  welcomer  to  the  longing  sons  of 
men.  The  earliest  light  found  the  main  body  of  Jack 
son's  army  in  their  former  position  behind  the  canal. 
Everything  that  New  Orleans  could  furnish  in  the  shape 
of  spade,  shovel,  pickaxe,  crowbar,  wheelbarrow,  cart, 
had  been  sent  for  hours  before,  and  the  first  supplies 
began  to  arrive  almost  as  soon  as  the  men  were  ready 
to  use  them.  Now  let  there  be  such  digging,  shoveling 
and  heaping  up  of  earth  as  the  Delta  of  the  Mississippi, 
or  any  other  delta,  has  never  seen  since  Adam  delved ! 

The  canal  was  deepened  and  the  earth  thrown  up  on 
the  side  nearest  the  city.  The  fences  were  torn  away, 
and  the  rails  driven  in  to  keep  the  light  soil  from  falling 
back  again  into  the  canal.  Soft  palms,  which  had  never 
before  handled  anything  harsher  than  a  pen,  a  fishing- 


SHOVELS  AND   WHEELBARROWS.  177 

rod,  or  a  lady's  waist,  blistered  and  bled,  and  felt  it  not. 
Each  company  had  its  own  line  of  embankment  to  throw 
up,  which  it  called  its  castle,  and  strained  every  muscle 
in  friendly  rivalry  to  make  it  overtop  the  castles  of  the 
rest. 

The  nature  of  the  soil  rendered  the  task  one  of  pe 
culiar  difficulty.  Dig  down  three  feet  anywhere  in  that 
singular  plain  and  you  come  to  water.  Earth  soon  be 
came  the  scarcest  of  commodities  near  the  lines,  and 
had  to  be  brought  from  far,  after  the  first  hours.  An 
idea  occurs  to  an  ingenious  French  intellect.  Cotton 
bales !  The  town  is  full  of  cotton  ;  and  lo  !  here,  close 
to  the  lines,  is  a  vessel  laden  with  cotton,  waiting  for  a 
chance  to  get  to  sea.  The  idea,  plausible  as  it  was,  did 
not  stand  the  test  of  service.  The  first  cannonade 
knocked  the  cotton  bales  about  in  a  manner  that  made 
the  general  more  eager  to  get  rid  of  them  than  he  had 
been  to  use  them.  Some  of  the  bales,  too,  caught  fire 
and  made  a  most  intolerable  and  persistent  smoke,  so 
that,  days  before  the  final  conflict,  every  pound  of  cot 
ton  was  removed  from  the  lines.  A  similar  error  was 
made  by  the  enemy,  who,  supposing  that  sugar  would 
offer  resistance  to  cannon  balls  equal  to  sand,  employed 
hogsheads  of  sugar  in  the  formation  of  their  batteries. 
The  first  ball  that  knocked  a  hogshead  to  pieces  and 
kept  on  its  destructive  way  unchecked,  convinced  them 
that  sugar  and  sand,  though  often  found  together,  have 
little  in  common. 

During  the  24th  the  entire  line  of  defense,  a  mile 
long,  was  begun,  and  raised  in  some  places  to  a  height 
of  four  or  five  feet.  The  work  was  not  interrupted  by 
the  enemy  for  a  moment,  nor  was  there  any  alarm  or 
sign  of  their  approach.  Before  night  two  small  pieces 
of  cannon  were  placed  in  position  on  the  high-road. 

In   the  course  of  the  morning   Major   Latour   was 


1 78  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

ordered  to  cut  the  levee  at  a  point  one  hundred  yards 
below  the  lines.  The  water  rushed  through  the  open 
ing  and  flooded  the  road  to  the  depth  of  three  feet.  A 
day  or  two  after,  an  engineer  was  sent  below  the  British 
camp  to  let  in  the  water  behind  them,  so  as  to  render 
their  position  an  island.  If  the  river  had  been  as  high 
as  it  occasionally  is  in  December,  and  always  is  in  the 
spring,  the  campaign  would  have  had  a  ludicrous  and 
bloodless  termination,  for  nearly  the  whole  plain  could 
have  been  laid  under  water,  and  the  enemy  would  have 
found  no  sufficient  resting-place  for  the  soles  of  so  many 
feet.  It  chanced,  however,  that  the  rise  of  the  river  at 
this  time  was  only  temporary.  The  water  soon  fell  to 
the  level  of  the  road;  and  the  piercing  of  the  levee 
really  aided  the  English,  by  filling  up  and  rendering 
more  navigable  the  creeks  in  their  rear,  by  which  their 
supplies  were  brought  up.  For  a  day  or  two  only  the 
flooding  of  the  road  was  serviceable  in  giving  an  appear 
ance  of  security  to  the  lines  near  the  river. 

Early  in  the  morning  the  Carolina,  from  her  anchor 
age  opposite  the  British  camp,  and  the  Louisiana,  from 
an  advantageous  position  a  mile  above,  played  upon  the 
enemy  whenever  a  red-coat  showed  itself  within  range. 
General  Keane  found  himself,  to  his  astonishment,  be 
sieged  !  Not  a  column  could  be  formed  upon  the  plain, 
which  was  torn  up  in  every  direction  by  the  Carolina's 
accurate  and  incessant  fire.  Never  was  an  army  more 
strangely,  more  unexpectedly,  more  completely  para 
lyzed.  They  could  do  absolutely  nothing  but  cower 
under  embankments,  skulk  behind  huts,  lie  low  in  dry 
ditches,  or  else  retire  beyond  the  reach  of  that  terrible 
fire  which  they  had  no  means  of  silencing  or  answering. 

And  on  this  busy  Saturday — the  day  before  the  best 
day  of  the  Christian  year — while  such  events  as  these 
were  transpiring  on  the  Delta  of  the  Mississippi,  what  a 


SHOVELS  AND  WHEELBARROWS. 


179 


different  scene  was  enacting  at  Ghent,  three  thousand 
miles  away  !  In  Senator  Seward's  Life  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  we  read :  "  Mr.  Todd,  one  of  the  secretaries  of 
the  American  commissioners,  and  son-in-law  of  Presi 
dent  Madison,  had  invited  several  gentlemen,  Americans 
and  others,  to  take  refreshments  with  him  on  the  24th 
of  December.  At  noon,  after  having  spent  some  time  in 
pleasant  conversation,  the  refreshments  entered,  and 
Mr.  Todd  said :  '  It  is  twelve  o'clock.  Well,  gentlemen, 
I  announce  to  you  that  peace  has  been  made  and  signed 
between  America  and  England.'  In  a  few  moments, 
Messrs.  Gallatin,  Clay,  Carroll,  and  Hughes  entered, 
and  confirmed  the  annunciation.  This  intelligence  was 
received  with  a  burst  of  joy  by  all  present.  The  news 
soon  spread  through  the  town,  and  gave  general  satis 
faction  to  the  citizens.  At  Paris  the  intelligence  was 
hailed  with  acclamations.  In  the  evening  the  theatres 
resounded  with  cries  of  *  God  save  the  Americans ! '  " 

Had  there  then  been  an  Atlantic  telegraphic  cable  ! 

The  light  of  Christmas  morning  found  the  English 
army  disheartened  almost  to  the  degree  of  despair.  "  I 
shall  eat  my  Christmas  dinner  in  New  Orleans,"  said  Ad 
miral  Cochrane  on  the  day  of  the  landing.  The  remark 
was  reported  by  a  prisoner  to  General  Jackson,  who  said, 
"  Perhaps  so ;  but  I  shall  have  the  honor  of  presiding  at 
that  dinner."  As  usual  when  affairs  go  wrong,  the  gen 
eral  in  command  was  the  scapegoat.  By  every  camp  fire, 
in  every  hut,  at  every  outpost,  the  conduct  of  General 
Keane  was  severely  criticised. 

Though  discouragement  was  the  habitual  feeling  of 
the  British  troops  from  the  night  of  the  23d  until  the 
end,  yet  an  event  on  this  Christmas  morning  occurred 
which  for  the  time  dispelled  the  prevailing  gloom.  This 
was  the  arrival  in  camp,  to  take  command  of  the  troops, 
of  Major-General  Sir  Edward  Pakenham,  and  with  him, 


I  So  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

as  second  in  command,  Major-General  Samuel  Gibbs, 
besides  several  staff  officers  of  experience  and  distinc 
tion.  In  a  moment  hope  revived  and  animation  reap 
peared.  General  Pakenham,  the  brother-in-law  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  a  favorite  of  the  duke  and  of  the 
army,  was  of  north  of  Ireland  extraction,  like  the  an 
tagonist  with  whom  he  had  come  to  contend.  Few  sol 
diers  of  the  Peninsular  War  had  won  such  high  and 
rapid  distinction  as  he.  At  Salamanca,  at  Badajos — 
wherever,  in  fact,  the  fighting  had  been  fiercest — there 
had  this  brave  soldier  done  a  man's  part  for  his  coun 
try,  often  foremost  among  the  foremost.  He  was  now 
but  thirty-eight  years  of  age,  and  the  record  of  his 
bright  career  was  written  all  over  his  body  in  scars. 
Conspicuous  equally  for  his  humanity  and  for  his  cour 
age,  he  had  ever  lifted  his  voice  and  his  arm  against 
those  monstrous  scenes  of  pillage  and  outrage  which 
disgraced  the  British  name  at  the  capture  of  the  strong 
holds  of  Spain  ;  hanging  a  man  upon  one  occasion  upon 
the  spot,  without  trial  or  law,  and  thus,  according  to 
Napier,  "  nipping  the  wickedness  in  the  bud." 

General  Pakenham  inherited  General  Keane's  errone 
ous  information  respecting  Jackson's  strength.  Keep 
ing  this  fact  in  view,  his  first  measure  seems  judicious 
enough.  To  blow  the  Carolina  out  of  the  water  was 
General  Pakenham's  first  resolve.  Till  that  is  done  he 
thinks  no  movement  of  the  troops  is  possible.  With  in 
credible  toil,  nine  fieldpieces,  two  howitzers,  one  mortar, 
a  furnace  for  heating  balls,  and  a  supply  of  the  requisite 
implements  and  ammunition,  were  brought  from  the 
fleet  and  dragged  to  the  British  camp.  By  the  evening 
of  the  26th  they  have  all  arrived,  and  are  ready  to  be 
placed  in  position  on  the  levee  as  soon  as  darkness 
covers  the  scene  of  operations  and  silences  the  Caro 
lina's  exasperating  fire.  The  little  schooner  lay  near 


SHOVELS   AND   WHEELBARROWS.  jgl 

the  opposite  shore  of  the  river,  just  where  she  had 
dropped  her  anchor  after  swinging  away  from  the  scene 
of  the  night  action  of  the  23d.  There  she  had  re 
mained  immovable  ever  since,  firing  at  the  enemy  as 
often  as  he  showed  himself.  A  succession  of  north 
erly  winds  and  dead  calms  rendered  it  impossible 
for  Captain  Henly  to  execute  his  purpose  of  getting 
nearer  the  British  position,  nor  could  he  move  the  vessel 
higher  up  against  the  strong  current  of  the  swollen 
Mississippi.  In  a  word,  the  Carolina  was  a  fixture,  a 
floating  battery.  What  is  very  remarkable,  considering 
the  great  annoyance  caused  by  the  fire  of  this  schooner, 
she  had  but  one  gun,  a  long  twelve,  as  Captain  Henly 
reports,  which  could  throw  a  ball  across  the  river. 

The  headquarters  of  General  Jackson  were  now  at  a 
mansion-house  about  two  hundred  yards  behind  the 
American  lines.  From  an  upper  window  of  this  house, 
above  the  trees  in  which  it  was  embosomed,  the  gen 
eral  surveyed  the  scene  below  :  the  long  line  of  men  at 
work  upon  the  intrenchments;  Hinds's  dragoons  ma 
noeuvring  and  galloping  to  and  fro  between  the  two 
armies ;  the  Carolina  and  Louisiana  in  the  stream  vom 
iting  their  iron  thunder  upon  the  foe.  With  the  aid  of  an 
old  telescope  lent  him  by  an  aged  Frenchman,  which 
appears  to  have  been  the  only  instrument  of  the  kind 
procurable  in  the  place,  he  scanned  the  British  position 
anxiously  and  often.  He  was  surprised,  puzzled,  and 
perhaps  a  little  alarmed  at  the  enemy's  prolonged  inac 
tivity.  What  could  they  be  doing  down  there  behind 
the  plantation  houses  ?  Why  should  they,  unless  they 
had  some  deep  scientific  scheme  on  foot,  quite  beyond 
the  penetration  of  backwoodsmen,  allow  him  to  go  on 
strengthening  his  position  day  after  day,  without  the 
slightest  attempt  at  molestation  ? 

It  was  not  in  the  nature  of  Andrew  Jackson  to  wait 
13 


1 82  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

long  for  an  enemy  to  attack.  Too  prudent  to  trust  his 
raw  troops  in  an  open  fight  with  an  army  twice  his  num 
ber,  it  occurred  to  him  on  the  afternoon  of  the  26th 
that  there  might  be  another  and  a  safer  way  to  dis 
lodge  them  from  their  covert ;  at  least,  to  disturb  them 
in  the  development  of  whatever  scheme  they  might  be 
so  quietly  concocting.  He  sent  for  Commodore  Patter 
son.  Upon  the  arrival  of  the  commodore  at  headquar 
ters,  a  short  conference  took  place  between  the  naval 
and  the  military  hero.  Then  the  gallant  commodore 
hurries  off  to  New  Orleans.  His  object  is  to  ascertain 
whether  a  few  of  the  merchant  vessels  lying  idle  at  the 
levee  can  not  be  instantly  manned,  and  armed  each  with 
two  thirty-two-pounders  from  the  navy  yard  ;  and  if  they 
can,  to  set  them  floating  down  toward  the  British  posi 
tion,  where,  dropping  anchor,  they  shall  join  in  the 
cannonade,  and  sweep  the  plain  from  side  to  side  with 
huge,  resistless  balls.  No  plantation  houses,  no  negro 
huts,  no  shallow  ditches,  no  attainable  distance  will  then 
avail  the  invading  army. 

Commodore  Patterson  could  not  succeed  in  his  er 
rand  in  time ;  but  he  bore  in  mind  the  general's  hint, 
and  in  due  time  acted  upon  it  in  another  way  with 
effect. 

At  dawn  of  day  on  the  2yth  the  American  troops 
were  startled  by  the  report  of  a  larger  piece  of  ordnance 
than  they  had  yet  heard  from  the  enemy's  camp.  The 
second  shot  from  the  great  guns  placed  by  the  British 
on  the  levee  during  the  night,  white  hot,  struck  the  Car 
olina,  pierced  her  side  and  lodged  in  the  main  hold  un 
der  a  mass  of  cables,  where  it  could  neither  be  reached 
nor  quenched.  And  this  was  but  the  prelude  to  a  furi 
ous  cannonade,  which  sent  the  bombs  and  hot  balls 
hissing  and  roaring  about  her,  penetrating  her  cabin, 
knocking  away  her  bulwarks,  and  bringing  down  rigging 


SHOVELS  AND  WHEELBARROWS. 


183 


and  spars  about  the  ears  of  the  astonished  crew.  Cap 
tain  Henly  replied  as  best  he  could  with  his  single  long 
twelve,  while  both  armies  lined  and  thronged  the  levee, 
watching  the  unequal  combat  with  breathless  interest. 

No,  not  breathless.  As  often  as  the  schooner  was 
hit, cheers  from  the  British  troops  rent  the  morning  air; 
and  whenever  a  well-aimed  shot  from  the  Carolina  drove 
the  British  gunners  for  a  moment  under  the  shelter  of 
the  levee,  shouts  from  the  Americans  applauded  the  de 
voted  crew.  General  Jackson  was  at  his  high  window 
spying  the  combat.  Perceiving  from  the  first  how  it 
must  end,  he  sent  an  emphatic  order  to  Lieutenant 
Thompson,  of  the  Louisiana,  to  get  that  vessel  out  of 
range  if  it  was  in  the  power  of  man  to  do  it.  General 
Pakenham  stood  on  the  levee  near  his  guns  cheering  on 
the  artillerymen. 

Half  an  hour  of  this  work  was  enough  for  the  Caro 
lina.  "  Finding,"  says  Captain  Henly,  in  his  report  to 
Commodore  Patterson,  with  the  blunt  pathos  of  a  sailor 
mourning  for  the  loss  of  his  vessel,  "that  hot  shot  were 
passing  through  her  cabin  and  filling-room,  which  con 
tained  a  considerable  quantity  of  powder,  her  bulwarks 
all  knocked  down  by  the  enemy's  shot,  the  vessel  in  a 
sinking  condition,  and  the  fire  increasing,  and  expecting 
every  moment  that  she  would  blow  up,  at  a  little  after 
sunrise  I  reluctantly  gave  orders  for  the  crew  to  aban 
don  her,  which  was  effected  with  the  loss  of  one  man 
killed  and  six  wounded.  A  short  time  after  I  had  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  the  crew  on  shore  I  had  the  extreme 
mortification  of  seeing  her  blow  up." 

The  explosion  was  terrific.  It  shook  the  earth  for 
miles  around ;  it  threw  a  shower  of  burning  fragments 
over  the  Louisiana,  a  mile  distant ;  it  sent  a  shock  of 
terror  to  thousands  of  listening  women  in  New  Orleans; 
it  gave  a  momentary  discouragement  to  the  American 


1 84  GENERAL  JACKSON.. 

troops.  The  English  army,  whom  the  schooner's  fire 
had  tormented  for  four  days,  raised  a  shout  of  exulta 
tion,  as  though  the  silencing  of  that  single  gun  had  re 
moved  the  only  obstacle  to  their  victorious  advance. 

But  the  Louisiana  was  still  above  water,  and  appar 
ently  as  immovable  as  the  Carolina  had  been.  Upon 
her  the  British  guns  were  immediately  turned.  To  avail 
himself  of  a  light  breeze,  or  intimation  of  a  breeze, 
from  the  east,  Lieutenant  Thompson  spread  all  his  sails. 
But  against  that  steady,  strong,  deep  current  it  availed 
not  even  to  slacken  the  ship's  cable.  Red-hot  balls  fell 
hissing  into  the  water  about  her,  and  a  shell  burst  upon 
her  deck,  wounding  six  of  the  crew.  "  Man  the  boats !  " 
cried  the  commander.  A  hundred  men  were  soon  tug 
ging  at  the  oars,  struggling  as  for  more  than  life  to  tow 
the  ship  up  the  stream.  She  moved ;  the  cable  slack 
ened  and  was  let  go ;  still  she  moved  slowly,  steadily, 
and  ere  long  was  safe  out  of  the  deadly  tempest,  at 
anchor  under  the  western  shore  opposite  the  American 
lines. 

Then  cheer  upon  cheer  saluted  the  rescued  ship. 
The  English  soldiers  heard  the  cheers  as  they  were 
"  falling  in  "  three  miles  below.  Every  trace  of  discour 
agement  was  gone  from  both  armies.  The  British  now 
formed  upon  the  open  plain  without  let  or  hindrance. 
The  Americans  could  coolly  estimate  the  success  of  the 
cannonade  at  its  proper  value.  They  had  lost  just  one 
available  gun  and  saved  a  ship  which,  at  one  broadside, 
could  throw  eight  twelve-pound  balls  a  mile  and  a  half. 
That  was  the  result  of  a  cannonade  for  which  the  British 
army  had  toiled  and  waited  a  day  and  two  nights. 

If  the  English  had  directed  their  fire  first  upon  the 
Louisiana,  they  could  have  destroyed  both  vessels.  How 
astonishing  that  any  man  standing  where  General  Pa- 
kenham  stood  that  morning  could  have  failed  to  perceive 


SHOVELS   AND  WHEELBARROWS.  185 

a  fact  so  obvious !  The  Louisiana  had  only  to  go  a  mile 
up  the  river  to  be  out  of  danger.  Half  a  mile  made  her 
comparatively  safe.  The  Carolina  was  fully  two  miles 
below  the  point  of  safety.  The  half  hour  expended 
upon  the  schooner  would  have  blown  up  the  ship,  and 
then  at  their  leisure  they  could  have  played  upon  the 
smaller  vessel.  And  even  if  Captain  Henly  had  slipped 
his  cable  and  dropped  down  the  stream  past  the  Brit 
ish  camp,  the  vessel  would  have  been  as  effectually 
removed  as  she  was  when  her  burning  fragments  float 
ed  by. 

The  27th  was  a  busy  day  in  the  American  lines. 
They  were  still  far  from  complete,  and  every  man  now 
felt  that  their  strength  would  soon  be  put  to  the  test. 
In  the  course  of  the  day  a  twelve-pound  howitzer  was 
placed  in  position  so  as  to  command  the  high-road. 
In  the  evening  a  twenty-four  was  established  farther  to 
the  left,  and  early  next  morning  another  twenty-four. 
The  crew  of  the  Carolina  hurried  round  to  the  lines  to 
assist  in  serving  these  guns,  and  on  the  morrow  the 
Baratarians  were  coming  down  from  Fort  St.  Johns  to 
lend  a  powerful  hand.  The  two  regiments  of  Louisiana 
militia  were  added  to  the  force  behind  the  lines.  All 
day  long  the  shovel  and  the  spade  are  vigorously  plied ; 
the  embankment  rises ;  the  canal  deepens.  The  lines 
nearest  the  river  are  strongest  and  best  protected,  and, 
besides,  are  concealed  from  the  view  of  an  approaching 
foe  by  the  buildings  of  the  Chalmette  plantation,  a  quar 
ter  of  a  mile  below  them.  These  buildings,  which  have 
served  hitherto  as  the  quarters  of  Hinds's  dragoons,  will 
protect  the  enemy  more  than  they  protect  us,  thinks  the 
general,  and  orders  them  to  be  fired  when  the  enemy 
advances.  It  proved  to  be  a  mistake,  and  the  order, 
luckily,  was  only  executed  in  part.  Far  to  the  left,  near 
the  cypress  swamp,  the  lines  are  weakest,  though  there 


!86  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Coffee's  Tennesseeans  «had  worked  as  Coffee's  Tennes- 
seeans  could  work  to  make  them  strong. 

The  morning  of  the  28th  of  December  was  one  of 
those  perfect  mornings  of  the  Southern  winter  to  enjoy 
which  it  is  almost  worth  while  to  live  twenty  degrees  too 
near  the  tropic  of  Cancer — balmy,  yet  bracing;  brilliant, 
but  soft ;  inviting  to  action,  though  rendering  mere  ex 
istence  happiness  enough.  The  golden  mist  that  her 
alded  the  sun  soon  wreathed  itself  away  and  vanished 
into  space,  except  that  part  of  it  which  hung  in  glitter 
ing  diamonds  upon  the  herbage  and  the  evergreens  that 
encircled  the  stubble-covered  plain.  The  monarch  of 
the  day  shone  out  with  that  brightness  that  neither  daz 
zles  nor  consumes,  but  is  beautiful  and  cheering  merely. 
Gone  and  forgotten  now  were  the  lowering  clouds,  the 
penetrating  fogs,  the  disheartening  rains  that  for  so 
many  days  and  dreary,  fearful  nights  had  hung  over  the 
dark  delta.  The  river  was  flowing  gold.  "  The  trees," 
we  are  told,  "  were  melodious  with  the  noisy  strains  of 
the  ricebird,  and  the  bold  falsetto  of  that  pride  of  South 
ern  ornithology,  the  mocking-bird,  who  here  alone  con 
tinues  the  whole  year  round  his  unceasing  notes  of 
exultant  mockery  and  vocal  defiance." 

Music  more  noisy  and  more  defiant  salutes  the  rising 
sun — the  rolling  drum  and  ringing  bugle,  namely,  that 
call  twelve  thousand  hostile  men  to  arms.  This  glorious 
morning  General  Pakenham  is  resolved  to  have  at  least 
one  good  look  at  the  wary  and  active  foe  that  for  five 
days  has  given  pause  to  the  invading  army,  and  has  not 
yet  been  so  much  as  seen  by  them.  With  his  whole 
force  he  will  march  boldly  up  to  the  lines,  and,  if  for 
tune  favors  and  the  prospect  pleases,  he  will  leap  over 
them  into  New  Orleans  and  the  House  of  Lords.  A 
grand  reconnoissance  is  the  order  of  the  day. 

The  American  general  has  not  used  his  telescope  in 


SHOVELS  AND  WHEELBARROWS. 

vain ;  he  is  perfectly  aware  that  an  early  advance  is  in 
tended.  Five  pieces  of  cannon  he  has  in  position.  The 
crew  of  the  Carolina,  under  Lieutenant  Crawley  and 
Lieutenant  Norris,  Captain  Humphrey  and  his  artillery 
men,  are  ready  to  serve  them.  Before  the  sun  was  an 
hour  on  his  way,  Jackson's  anxious  glances  toward  the 
city  had  been  changed  into  expressions  of  satisfaction 
and  confidence  by  the  spectacle  of  several  straggling 
bands  of  red-shirted,  bewhiskered,  rough  and  desperate- 
looking  men,  all  begrimed  with  smoke  and  mud,  hurry 
ing  down  the  road  toward  the  lines.  These  proved  to  be 
the  Baratarians  under  Dominique  You  and  Bluche,  who 
had  run  all  the  way  from  the  Fort  St.  John,  where  they 
had  been  stationed  since  their  release  from  prison.  They 
immediately  took  charge  of  one  of  the  twenty-four- 
pounders.  And,  what  is  of  far  more  importance,  the 
Louisiana,  saved  yesterday  by  the  resolution  and  skill 
of  Lieutenant  Thompson,  is  ready  at  a  moment's  warn 
ing  to  let  out  cable  and  swing  round  so  as  to  throw  her 
balls  obliquely  across  the  plain.  And  all  this  is  hidden 
from  the  foemen,  who  will  know  nothing  of  what  awaits 
them  till  they  have  passed  the  plantation  houses  of 
Chalmette  and  Bienvenu,  only  five  hundred  yards  from 
the  lines! 

General  Jackson  was  not  kept  long  in  suspense.  The 
spectacle  of  the  British  advance  was  splendid  in  the  ex 
treme.  "  Forward  they  came,"  says  the  author  of  *  Jack 
son  and  New  Orleans,'  "  in  solid  columns,  as  compact 
and  orderly  as  if  on  parade,  under  cover  of  a  shower 
of  rockets  and  a  continual  fire  from  their  artillery  in 
front  and  their  batteries  on  the  levee.  It  was  certainly 
a  bold  and  imposing  demonstration,  for  such,  as  we  are 
told  by  British  officers,  it  was  intended  to  be.  To  new 
soldiers  like  the  Americans,  fresh  from  civic  and  peace 
ful  pursuits,  who  had  never  witnessed  any  scenes  of  real 


1 88  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

warfare,  it  was  certainly  a  formidable  display  of  military 
power  and  discipline.  Those  veterans  moved  as  steadily 
and  closely  together  as  if  marching  in  review  instead  of 
'in  the  cannon's  mouth.'  Their  muskets,  catching  the 
rays  of  the  morning  sun,  nearly  blinded  the  beholder 
with  their  brightness,  while  their  gay  and  various  uni 
forms,  red,  gray,  green,  and  tartan,  afforded  a  pleas 
ing  relief  to  the  winter-clad  field  and  the  sombre  objects 
around." 

Thus  appeared  the  British  host  to  the  gazing  multi 
tude  behind  the  American  lines ;  for  the  author  of  the 
passage  quoted  learned  his  story  from  the  lips  of  men 
who  saw  the  sight.  The  British  "  Subaltern  "  tells  us 
how  the  American  lines  looked  to  the  advancing  army, 
and  what  reception  greeted  it:  "Moving  on  in  merry 
mood,  we  advanced  about  four  or  five  miles  without  the 
smallest  check  or  hindrance,  when  at  length  we  found 
ourselves  in  view  of  the  enemy's  army,  posted  in  a  very 
advantageous  manner.  About  forty  yards  in  their  front 
was  a  canal,  which  extended  from  the  morass  to  within 
a  short  distance  of  the  high-road.  Along  their  line  were 
thrown  up  breastworks,  not  indeed  completed,  but  even 
now  formidable.  Upon  the  road,  and  at  several  other 
points,  were  erected  powerful  batteries;  while  the  ship, 
with  a  large  flotilla  of  gunboats  [no,  sir — no  gunboats], 
flanked  the  whole  position  from  the  river. 

"  When  I  say  that  we  came  in  sight  of  the  enemy,  I 
do  not  mean  that  he  was  gradually  exposed  to  us  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  leave  time  for  cool  examination  and  re 
flection.  On  the  right,  indeed,  he  was  seen  for  some 
time;  but  on  the  left,  a  few  houses  built  at  a  turning  in 
the  road  entirely  concealed  him ;  nor  was  it  till  they  had 
gained  that  turning,  and  beheld  the  muzzles  of  his  guns 
pointed  toward  them,  that  those  who  moved  in  this 
direction  were  aware  of  their  proximity  to  danger.  But 


SHOVELS  AND   WHEELBARROWS.  189 

that  danger  was  indeed  near,  they  were  quickly  taught ; 
for  scarcely  had  the  head  of  the  column  passed  the 
houses,  when  a  deadly  fire  was  opened  from  both  the 
battery  and  the  shipping.  That  the  Americans  are  ex 
cellent  marksmen,  as  well  with  artillery  as  with  rifles,  we 
have  had  frequent  cause  to  acknowledge;  but  perhaps 
on  no  occasion  did  they  assert  their  claim  to  the  title  of 
good  artillerymen  more  effectually  than  on  the  present. 
Scarce  a  ball  passed  over  or  fell  short  of  its  mark,  but 
all  striking  full  into  the  midst  of  our  ranks  occasioned 
terrible  havoc.  The  shrieks  of  the  wounded,  therefore, 
the  crash  of  firelocks,  and  the  fall  of  such  as  were 
killed,  caused  at  first  some  little  confusion ;  and  what 
added  to  the  panic  was,  that  from  the  houses  beside 
which  we  stood  bright  flames  suddenly  burst  out.  The 
Americans,  expecting  this  attack,  had  filled  them  with 
combustibles  for  the  purpose,  and  directing  against  them 
one  or  two  guns  loaded  with  red-hot  shot,  in  an  instant 
set  them  on  fire.  The  scene  was  altogether  very  sub 
lime.  A  tremendous  cannonade  mowed  down  our  ranks 
and  deafened  us  with  its  roar,  while  two  large  cha 
teaux  and  their  out-buildings  almost  scorched  us  with 
the  flames,  and  blinded  us  with  the  smoke  which  they 
emitted. 

"  The  infantry,  however,  were  not  long  suffered  to 
remain  thus  exposed,  but,  being  ordered  to  quit  the 
path  and  to  form  line  in  the  fields,  the  artillery  was 
brought  up  and  opposed  to  that  of  the  enemy.  But  the 
contest  was  in  every  respect  unequal,  since  their  artillery 
far  exceeded  ours  both  in  numerical  strength  and  weight 
of  metal.  The  consequence  was  that  in  half  an  hour 
two  of  our  field-pieces  and  one  field  mortar  were  dis 
mounted  ;  many  of  the  gunners  were  killed  ;  and  the 
rest,  after  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  silence  the  fire  of 
the  shipping,  were  obliged  to  retire. 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"  In  the  meantime  the  infantry,  having  formed  line, 
advanced  under  a  heavy  discharge  of  round  and  grape 
shot,  till  they  were  checked  by  the  appearance  of  the 
canal.  Of  its  depth  they  were  of  course  ignorant,  and 
to  attempt  its  passage  without  having  ascertained 
whether  it  could  be  forded  might  have  been  productive 
of  fatal  consequences.  A  halt  was  accordingly  ordered, 
and  the  men  were  commanded  to  shelter  themselves  as 
well  as  they  could  from  the  enemy's  fire.  For  this  pur 
pose  they  were  hurried  into  a  wet  ditch,  of  sufficient 
depth  to  cover  the  knees,  where,  leaning  forward,  they 
concealed  themselves  behind  some  high  rushes  which 
grew  upon  its  brink,  and  thus  escaped  many  bullets 
which  fell  around  them  in  all  directions. 

"  Thus  fared  it  with  the  left  of  the  army,  while  the 
right,  though  less  exposed  to  the  cannonade,  was  not 
more  successful  in  its  object.  The  same  impediment 
which  checked  one  column  forced  the  other  likewise  to 
pause,  and,  after  having  driven  in  an  advanced  body  of 
the  enemy  and  endeavored  without  effect  to  penetrate 
through  the  marsh,  it  also  was  commanded  to  halt.  In 
a  word,  all  thought  of  attacking  was  for  this  day  aban 
doned,  and  it  now  only  remained  to  withdraw  the  troops 
from  their  present  perilous  situation  with  as  little  loss 
as  possible. 

"  The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  remove  the  dis 
mounted  guns.  Upon  this  enterprise  a  party  of  seamen 
was  employed,  who,  running  forward  to  the  spot  where 
they  lay,  lifted  them,  in  spite  of  the  whole  of  the  enemy's 
fire,  and  bore  them  off  in  triumph.  As  soon  as  this  was 
effected,  regiment  after  regiment  stole  away — not  in  a 
body,  but  one  by  one — under  the  same  discharge  which 
saluted  their  approach.  But  a  retreat  thus  conducted 
necessarily  occupied  much  time.  Noon  had  therefore 
long  passed  before  the  last  corps  was  brought  off,  and 


SHOVELS   AND   WHEELBARROWS. 


IQI 


when  we  again  began  to  muster  twilight  was  approach 
ing." 

What  a  day  for  the  heroes  of  the  Peninsula  and  the 
stately  Ninety-third  Highlanders ! — lying  low  in  wet 
ditches,  some  of  them  for  seven  hours,  under  that  re 
lentless  cannonade,  and  then  slinking  away  behind 
fences,  huts,  and  burning  houses,  or  even  crawling 
along  on  the  bottom  of  ditches,  happy  to  get  beyond 
the  reach  of  those  rebounding  balls,  that  "  knocked 
down  the  soldiers,"  says  Captain  Cooke,  "  and  tossed 
them  into  the  air  like  old  bags."  And  what  a  day  for 
General  Jackson  and  his  four  thousand,  who  saw  the 
magnificent  advance  of  the  morning,  not  without  mis 
givings,  and  then  beheld  the  most  splendid  and  impos 
ing  army  they  had  ever  seen  sink,  as  it  were,  into  the 
earth  and  vanish  from  their  sight !  This  reconnoissance 
cost  General  Pakenham  a  loss  of  fifty  killed  and  wounded. 
The  casualties  on  the  American  side  were  nine  killed  and 
eight  wounded. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

SECOND    ADVANCE    OF    THE   ENGLISH, 

GENERAL  PAKENHAM  had  seen  the  American  lines. 
The  inference  he  drew  from  the  sight  was  that  the  way 
to  carry  the  American  position  was  to  make  regular  ap 
proaches  to  it,  as  to  a  walled  and  fortified  city. 

During  the  last  three  days  of  the  year  1814  the 
British  army  remained  inactive  on  the  plain,  two  miles 
below  the  American  lines  and  in  full  view  of  them, 
while  the  sailors  were  employed  in  bringing  from  the 
fleet  thirty  pieces  of  cannon  of  large  caliber,  with  which 
to  execute  the  scheme  that  had  been  resolved  upon.  By 
the  evening  of  the  3ist  of  December  the  thirty  pieces  o-f 
cannon  from  the  fleet  (twenty  long  eighteens  and  ten 
twenty-fours)  had  reached  the  British  camp.  All  that 
day  the  Americans  had  been  amused  with  a  cannonade 
from  a  battery  erected  near  the  swamp,  under  cover  of 
which  parties  of  English  troops  attempted,  but  with 
small  success,  to  reconnoiter  the  American  position.  As 
soon  as  it  was  quite  dark  operations  of  far  greater  im 
portance  commenced.  "  One  half  the  army,"  says  a 
British  officer,  "was  ordered  out  and  marched  to  the 
front,  passing  the  pickets,  and  halting  about  three 
hundred  yards  from  the  enemy's  line.  Here  it  was  re 
solved  to  throw  up  a  chain  of  works;  and  here  the 
greater  part  of  this  detachment,  laying  down  their  fire 
locks,  applied  themselves  vigorously  to  their  tasks, 
while  the  rest  stood  armed  and  prepared  for  their  de- 


SECOND   ADVANCE   OF   THE   ENGLISH.  ig-^ 

fense.  The  night  was  dark,  and  our  people  maintained 
a  profound  silence ;  by  which  means  not  an  idea  of  what 
was  going  on  existed  in  the  American  camp.  As  we 
labored,  too,  with  all  diligence,  six  batteries  were  com 
pleted  long  before  dawn,  in  which  were  mounted  thirty 
pieces  of  heavy  cannon  ;  when,  falling  back  a  little  way, 
we  united  ourselves  to  the  remainder  of  the  infantry, 
and  lay  down  behind  the  rushes  in  readiness  to  act  as 
soon  as  we  should  be  wanted." 

The  second  Sunday  of  this  strange  mutual  siege  had 
come  round.  The  light  of  another  New-Year's  day 
dawned  upon  the  world. 

The  English  soldiers  had  not  worked  so  silently  dur 
ing  the  night  upon  their  new  batteries  but  that  an  occa 
sional  sound  of  hammering,  dulled  by  distance,  had  been 
heard  in  the  American  lines.  The  outposts,  too,  had  sent 
in  news  of  the  advance  of  British  troops,  who  were  busy 
at  something,  though  the  outposts  could  not  say  what. 
The  veterans  of  the  American  army — that  is,  those  who 
had  smelt  gunpowder  before  this  campaign — gave  it  as 
their  opinion  that  there  would  be  warm  work  again  at 
daybreak. 

Long  before  the  dawn  the  dull  hammering  ceased. 
When  the  day  broke,  a  fog,  so  dense  that  a  man  could 
discern  nothing  at  a  distance  of  twenty  yards,  covered 
all  the  plain.  Not  a  sound  was  heard  in  the  direction 
of  the  enemy's  camp,  nor  did  the  American  sentinels 
nearest  their  position  hear  or  see  anything  to  excite 
alarm.  At  eight  o'clock  the  fog  was  still  impenetrable, 
and  the  silence  unbroken.  As  late  even  as  nine  the 
American  troops,  who  were  on  slightly  higher  ground 
than  the  British,  saw  little  prospect  of  the  fog  breaking 
away,  still  less  of  any  hostile  movement  on  the  part  of 
the  foe.  The  veterans  begin  to  retract  their  opinion. 
We  are  to  have  another  day  of  waiting,  think  the  younger 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

soldiers,  the  gay  Creoles  not  forgetting  that  the  day  was 
the  first  of  a  new  year. 

The  general,  conceding  something  to  the  pleasure- 
loving  part  of  his  army,  permitted  a  brief  respite  from 
the  arduous  toil  of  the  week,  and  ordered  a  grand  review 
of  the  whole  army,  on  the  open  ground  between  the 
lines  and  his  own  headquarters.  To-day,  too,  for  the 
first  time  in  several  days,  the  Louisiana  remained  at  her 
safe  anchorage  above  the  lines,  and  a  large  number  of 
her  crew  went  ashore  on  the  western  bank  and  took 
post  in  Commodore  Patterson's  new  battery  there.  But 
this  was  not  for  holiday  reasons.  A  deserter  came  in 
the  night  before  and  informed  the  commodore  that  the 
enemy  had  established  two  enormous  howitzers  in  a 
battery  on  the  levee,  where  balls  were  kept  red  hot  for 
the  purpose  of  firing  the  obnoxious  vessel  the  moment 
she  should  come  within  range  again.  So  the  commo 
dore  kept  his  vessel  safe,  landed  two  more  of  her  great 
guns,  and  ordered  ashore  men  enough  to  work  them. 

Toward  ten  o'clock  the  fog  rose  from  the  American 
position  and  disclosed  to  the  impatient  enemy  the  scene 
behind  the  lines.  A  gay  and  brilliant  scene  it  was, 
framed  and  curtained  in  fog.  "  The  fog  dispersed,"  re 
marks  CaptainHill,  "  with  a  rapidity  perfectly  surprising ; 
the  change  of  scene  at  a  theatre  could  scarcely  be  more 
sudden,  and  the  bright  sun  shone  forth,  diffusing  warmth 
and  gladness."  "  Being  at  this  time,"  says  the  Subaltern, 
"only  three  hundred  yards  distant,  we  could  perceive  all 
that  was  going  forward  with  great  exactness.  The  dif 
ferent  regiments  were  upon  parade,  and,  being  dressed 
in  holiday  suits,  presented  really  a  fine  appearance. 
Mounted  officers  were  riding  backward  and  forward 
through  the  ranks,  bands  were  playing,  and  colors  float 
ing  in  the  air — in  a  word,  all  seemed  jollity  and  gala." 
The  general  in  chief  had  not  yet  appeared  upon  the 


SECOND  ADVANCE  OF   THE   ENGLISH.          195 

ground.  He  had  been  up  and  doing  before  the  dawn, 
and  was  now  lying  on  a  couch  at  headquarters,  before 
riding  out  to  review  the  troops. 

In  a  moment  how  changed  the  scene !  At  a  signal 
from  the  central  battery  of  the  enemy,  the  whole  of 
their  thirty  pieces  of  cannon  opened  fire  full  upon  the 
American  lines,  and  the  air  was  filled  with  the  red  glare 
and  hideous  scream  of  hundreds  of  Congreve  rockets ! 
As  completely  taken  by  surprise  as  the  enemy  had  been 
on  the  night  of  the  23d,  the  troops  were  thrown  into 
instantaneous  confusion.  "  The  ranks  were  broken," 
continues  the  Subaltern,  "  the  different  corps,  dispersing, 
fled  in  all  directions,  while  the  utmost  terror  and  dis 
order  appeared  to  prevail.  Instead  of  nicely  dressed  lines, 
nothing  but  confused  crowds  could  now  be  observed ; 
nor  was  it  without  much  difficulty  that  order  was  finally 
restored.  Oh,  that  we  had  charged  at  that  instant !  " 

The  enemy,  having  learned  which  house  was  the 
headquarters  of  the  general,  directed  a  prodigious  fire 
upon  it,  and  the  first  news  of  the  cannonade  came  to 
Jackson  in  the  sound  of  crashing  porticoes  and  out 
buildings.  During  the  first  ten  minutes  of  the  fire  one 
hundred  balls  struck  the  mansion,  but,  though  some  of 
the  general's  suite  were  covered  with  rubbish,  and  Colo 
nel  Butler  was  knocked  down,  they  all  escaped  and  made 
their  way  to  the  lines  without  a  scratch. 

The  Subaltern  is  mistaken  in  saying  that  the  troops 
fled  in  all  directions.  There  was  but  one  direction  in 
which  to  fly  either  to  safety  or  to  duty ;  for,  on  that  occa 
sion,  the  post  of  duty  and  the  post  of  safety  were  the 
same,  namely,  close  behind  the  line  of  defense.  For  ten 
minutes,  however,  the  American  batteries,  always  before 
so  prompt  with  their  responsive  thunder,  were  silent, 
while  the  troops  were  running  in  haste  to  their  several 
posts. 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Ten  guns  were  in  position  in  the  American  lines,  be 
sides  those  in  the  battery  on  the  other  side  of  the  river. 
Upon  Jackson's  coming  to  the  front,  he  found  his  artil 
lerymen  at  their  posts,  waiting  with  lighted  matches  to 
open  fire  upon  the  foe  as  soon  as  the  dense  masses  of 
mingled  smoke  and  mist  that  enveloped  their  batteries 
should  roll  away.  "  Jackson's  first  glance,"  as  Mr. 
Walker  informs  us,  "  when  he  reached  the  line,  was  in 
the  direction  of  Humphrey's  battery.  There  stood  this 
right  arm  of  the  artillery,  dressed  in  his  usual  plain 
attire,  smoking  that  eternal  cigar,  coolly  leveling  his 
guns  and  directing  his  men. 

"  *  Ah  ! '  exclaimed  the  general,  '  all  is  right.  Hum 
phrey  is  at  his  post,  and  will  return  their  compliments 
presently/ 

"Then,  accompanied  by  his  aides,  he  walked  down 
to  the  left,  stopping  at  each  battery  to  inspect  its  condi 
tion,  and  waving  his  cap  to  the  men  as  they  gave  him 
three  cheers,  and  observing  to  the  soldiers : 

"  'Don't  mind  those  rockets;  they  are  mere  toys  to 
amuse  children.'  ' 

Captain  Humphrey  soon  caught  a  glimpse  of  the 
British  batteries — structures  of  narrow  front  and  slight 
elevation,  lying  low  and  dim  upon  the  field;  no  such 
broad  target  as  the  mile-long  lines  of  the  American 
position.  Adjusting  a  twelve-pounder  with  the  utmost 
exactness,  he  quietly  gave  the  word,  and  the  firing 
from  the  American  lines  began.  The  other  batteries 
instantly  joined  in  the  strife.  The  British  howitzers  on 
the  levee  and  the  battery  of  Commodore  Patterson  on 
the  opposite  bank  exchanged  a  vigorous  fire.  For  the 
space  of  an  hour  and  a  half  a  cannonade  so  loud  and  rapid 
shook  the  delta  as  had  never  before  been  heard  in  the 
Western  world.  Imagine  fifty  pieces  of  cannon,  of  large 
caliber  for  that  day,  each  discharged  from  once  to  thrice 


SECOND   ADVANCE   OF   THE   ENGLISH. 

a  minute;  often  a  simultaneous  discharge  of  half  a 
dozen  pieces ;  an  average  of  two  discharges  every 
second ;  while  plain  and  river  were  so  densely  covered 
with  smoke  that  the  gunners  aimed  their  guns  from 
recollection  chiefly,  and  knew  scarcely  anything  of  the 
effect  of  their  fire. 

Well  aimed,  however,  were  the  British  guns,  as  the 
American  lines  soon  began  to  exhibit.  Most  of  their 
balls  buried  themselves  harmlessly  in  the  soft,  elastic 
earth  of  the  thick  embankment.  Many  flew  over  its 
summit  and  did  bloody  execution  on  those  who  were 
bringing  up  ammunition,  as  well  as  on  some  who  were 
retiring  from  their  posts.  Several  balls  struck  and  near 
ly  sunk  a  boat  laden  with  stores  that  was  moored  to  the 
levee  two  hundred  yards  behind  the  lines.  The  cotton 
bales  of  the  batteries  nearest  the  river  were  knocked 
about  in  all  directions,  and  set  on  fire,  adding  fresh  vol 
umes  to  the  already  impenetrable  smoke.  One  of 
Major  Planche's  men  was  wounded  in  trying  to  extin 
guish  this  most  annoying  fire.  A  thirty-two-pounder  in 
Lieutenant  Crawley's  battery  was  hit  and  damaged. 
The  carriage  of  a  twenty-four  was  broken.  One  of  the 
twelves  was  silenced.  Two  powder-carriages,  one  con 
taining  a  hundred  pounds  of  the  explosive  material,  blew 
up  with  a  report  so  terrific  as  to  silence  for  a  moment 
the  enemy's  fire  and  draw  from  them  a  faint  cheer. 
And  still  the  lines  continued  to  vomit  forth  a  fire  that 
knew  neither  cessation  nor  pause,  until  the  guns  grew  so 
hot  that  it  was  difficult  and  dangerous  to  load  them. 
And  after  an  hour  and  a  half  of  such  work  as  this  no 
man  in  Jackson's  army  could  say  with  certainty  whether 
the  English  batteries  had  been  seriously  damaged. 

It  was  nearly  noon  when  it  began  to  be  perceived 
that  the  British  fire  was  slackening.  The  American 
batteries  were  then  ordered  to  cease  firing,  for  the  guns 
14 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

to  cool  and  the  smoke  to  roll  away.  What  a  scene 
greeted  the  anxious  gaze  of  the  troops  when  at  length 
the  British  position  was  disclosed !  Those  formidable 
batteries,  which  had  excited  such  consternation  an  hour 
and  a  half  before,  were  totally  destroyed,  and  presented 
but  formless  masses  of  soil  and  broken  guns,  while  the 
sailors  who  had  manned  them  were  seen  running  from 
them  to  the  rear  ;  and  the  army  that  had  been  drawn  up 
behind  the  batteries,  ready  to  storm  the  lines  as  soon 
as  a  breach  had  been  made  in  them,  had  again  ignomin- 
iously  "  taken  to  the  ditch." 

Those  hogsheads  of  sugar  were  the  fatal  mistake  of 
the  English  engineers.  They  afforded  absolutely  no 
protection  against  the  fire  of  the  American  batteries,  the 
balls  going  straight  through  them  and  killing  men  in 
the  very  center  of  the  works.  Hence  it  was  that  in 
little  more  than  an  hour  the  batteries  were  heaps  of 
ruins,  and  the  guns  dismantled,  broken,  and  immovable. 
The  howitzers,  too,  on  the  levee,  after  waging  an  active 
duel  with  Commodore  Patterson  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  were  silenced  and  overthrown  by  a  few  discharges 
from  Captain  Humphrey's  twelve-pounders.  Nothing 
remained  for  the  discomfited  army  but  to  make  the  best 
of  their  way  to  their  old  position,  and  so  incessant  was 
the  American  fire  during  the  afternoon  that  it  was  only 
when  night  came  that  all  the  army  succeeded  in  with 
drawing. 

The  British  loss  on  the  ist  of  January  was  about 
thirty  killed  and  forty  wounded ;  the  Americans,  eleven 
killed  and  twenty-three  wounded.  Most  of  the  American 
slain  were  not  engaged  in  the  battle,  but  were  struck 
down  a  considerable  distance  behind  the  lines  while  they 
were  looking  on  as  mere  spectators. 

The  cotton  error  was  quickly  repaired.  Every  bale 
of  that  delusive  material  was  removed  from  the  works 


SECOND  ADVANCE  OF  THE   ENGLISH. 

and  its  place  supplied  with  the^black,  and  spongy  soil  of 
the  delta,  which  the  Sunday  cannonade  had  shown  to 
be  a  perfect  defense,  the  balls  sinking  into  it  out  of 
sight  without  shaking  the  embankment.  The  lines  were 
strengthened  in  every  part  and  new  cannon  mounted 
upon  them.  Work  was  continued  upon  the  second  line, 
a  mile  and  a  half  in  the  rear.  Even  a  third  line  of 
defense  was  marked  out  and  begun,  still  nearer  the 
city.  On  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river  the  old  works 
were  repaired  and  strengthened,  and  new  ones  com 
menced. 

What  the  enemy  would  attempt  next,  was  a  mystery, 
which  General  Jackson  anxiously  revolved  in  his  mind 
and  strove  in  all  ways  to  penetrate.  Monday,  Tuesday, 
Wednesday,  Thursday  passed  away,  and  still  the  hostile 
army  made  no  movement  which  gave  the  American  gen 
eral  a  clew  to  their  design,  if  design  they  had.  Strong 
men  and  weak  men,  good  men  and  men  less  good,  are 
all  alike  liable  to  the  error  of  judging  others  by  them 
selves.  During  these  days,  therefore,  Jackson  inclined 
to  the  opinion  that  his  lines  would  not  again  be  attacked, 
and  so  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  While  apparently 
bending  all  his  energies  to  the  sole  object  of  strengtheri- 
ing  his  position,  his  mind  was  racked  with  fear  of  beipg 
surprised  in  another  quarter.  How  natural  such  an 
idea !  If  thirty  pieces  of  cannon  could  not  penetrate 
the  lines,  what  could?  If,  on  the  ist  of  January,  the 
American  position  was  found  impregnable,  could  it  be 
deemed  less  so  after  three  thousand  men  had  worked 
upon  it  for  nearly  a  week  ?  Two  attempts  having  sig 
nally  and  ignominiously  failed,  would  any  general  risk 
his  army  and  his  reputation  upon  a  third  ? 

On  Wednesday  morning,  January  4th,  the  long- 
looked  for  Kentuckians,  twenty-two  hundred  and  fifty 
in  number,  reached  New  Orleans.  Seldom  has  a  re- 


20O  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

enforcement  been  so  anxiously  expected ;  never  did 
the  arrival  of  one  create  keener  disappointment.  They 
were  so  ragged  that  the  men,  as  they  marched  shivering 
through  the  streets,  were  observed  to  hold  together  their 
garments  with  their  hands  to  cover  their  nakedness; 
and,  what  was  far  worse,  because  beyond  remedy,  not 
one  man  in  ten  was  well  armed,  and  only  one  man  in 
three  had  any  arms  at  all.  It  was  a  bitter  moment  for 
General  Jackson  when  he  heard  this,  and  it  was  a  bitter 
thing  for  those  brave  and  devoted  men,  who  had  fondly 
hoped  to  find  in  the  abundance  of  New  Orleans  an  end  of 
their  exposure  and  destitution,  to  learn  that  the  general 
had  not  a  musket,  a  blanket,  a  tent,  a  garment,  a  rag,  to 
give  them.  A  body  of  Louisiana  militia,  too,  who  had 
arrived  a  day  or  two  before  from  Baton  Rouge,  were  in 
a  condition  only  a  little  less  deplorable.  Here  was  a 
force  of  nearly  three  thousand  men,  every  man  of  whom 
was  pressingly  wanted,  paralyzed  and  useless  from  want 
of  those  arms  that  had  been  sent  on  their  way  down  the 
river  sixty  days  before.  It  would  have  fared  ill,  I  fear, 
with  the  captain  of  that  loitering  boat  if  he  had  chanced 
to  arrive  just  then,  for  the  general  was  wroth  exceed 
ingly.  Up  the  river  go  new  expresses  to  bring  him  down 
in  irons.  They  bring  him  at  last,  the  astonished  man, 
but  days  and  days  too  late.  The  old  soldiers  of  this 
campaign  mention  that  the  general's  observations  upon 
the  character  of  the  hapless  captain,  his  parentage,  and 
upon  various  portions  of  his  mortal  and  immortal  frame, 
were  much  too  forcible  for  repetition  in  print. 

The  Legislature  of  Louisiana  and  the  people  of  New 
Orleans  behaved  on  this  occasion  with  prompt  and  noble 
generosity.  Major  Latour  records  what  was  done  by 
them  and  by  the  people  for  the  relief  of  the  destitute 
soldiers:  "Within  one  week  twelve  hundred  blanket 
cloaks,  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  waistcoats,  eleven 


SECOND  ADVANCE   OF   THE   ENGLISH.          2QI 

hundred  and  twenty-seven  pairs  of  pantaloons,  eight 
hundred  shirts,  four  hundred  and  ten  pairs  of  shoes,  and 
a  great  number  of  mattresses  were  made  up,  or  purchased 
ready  made,  and  distributed  among  our  brethren  in  arms 
who  stood  in  the  greatest  need  of  them." 

The  enemy,  meanwhile,  had  recovered  their  spirits 
and  increased  their  numbers.  Two  regiments,  the  Sev 
enth  and  Forty-third  Infantry,  numbering  together  seven 
teen  hundred,  under  General  John  Lambert,  had  arrived 
from  England,  infusing  new  life  into  the  disheartened 
army,  and  raising  its  force  to  seven  thousand  three 
hundred  men.  General  Pakenham  had  formed  a  bold 
and  soldierlike  design,  for  the  execution  of  which  the 
whole  army  was  preparing,  and  the  camp  was  alive  with 
expectation.  The  "chained  dog"  would  at  length  get 
at  his  enemy  and  growl  no  more.  "  The  new  scheme," 
says  the  Subaltern,  "  was  worthy,  for  its  boldness,  of 
the  school  in  which  Sir  Edward  had  studied  his  profes 
sion.  It  was  determined  to  divide  the  army :  to  send 
part  across  the  river,  who  should  seize  the  enemy's 
guns  and  turn  them  on  themselves,  while  the  remainder 
should  at  the  same  time  make  a  general  assault  along 
the  whole  intrenchment.  But  before  this  plan  could  be 
put  into  execution  it  would  be  necessary  to  cut  a  canal 
across  the  entire  neck  of  land  from  the  Bayou  de  Cati 
line  to  the  river,  of  sufficient  width  and  depth  to  admit 
of  boats  being  brought  up  from  the  lake.  Upon  this 
arduous  undertaking  were  the  troops  immediately  em 
ployed.  Being  divided  into  four  companies,  they  labored 
by  turns,  day  and  night;  one  party  relieving  another 
after  a  stated  number  of  hours,  in  such  order  as  that  the 
work  should  never  be  entirely  deserted.  The  fatigue 
undergone  during  the  prosecution  of  this  attempt  no 
words  can  sufficiently  describe ;  yet  it  was  pursued  with 
out  repining,  and  at  length,  by  unremitting  exertions, 


202  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

they  succeeded  in  effecting  their  purpose  by  the  6th  of 
January. 

The  lines,  then,  were  to  be  stormed !  The  vital 
clause  of  the  scheme  was  that  which  contemplated  the 
carrying  of  the  works  on  the  western  bank  first,  and  the 
turning  of  Commodore  Patterson's  great  guns  upon  the 
back  of  Jackson's  lines.  Let  that  be  done,  and  the  lines 
are  untenable  and  will  require  little  storming.  If  that 
is  not  done,  or  not  done  in  time,  the  storming  of  the 
lines  will  be  a  piece  of  work  such  as  British  soldiers 
have  seldom  attempted.  The  naked  bodies  of  the 
troops  will  have  to  encounter  that  before  which  sugar 
hogsheads  and  earthworks  crumbled  to  pieces  in  an 
hour ! 

It  was  not  till  Friday  evening,  the  6th  of  the  new 
year,  that  General  Jackson  began  to  so  much  as  suspect 
the  enemy's  design.  On  that  day  Sailing-Master  John 
son,  who  was  posted  at  the  Chef-Menteur,  seeing  a  small 
English  brig  on  her  way  from  the  fleet  to  the  Bienvenu, 
laden,  as  he  supposed,  with  supplies  for  the  British  army, 
darted  out  upon  her  with  three  boats  and  captured  her 
and  ten  prisoners.  From  these  prisoners  the  American 
general  learned  one  important  fact — that  the  enemy  was 
deepening  and  prolonging  a  canal  across  the  plain. 
Then  their  plan  began  to  dawn  upon  Jackson's  mind. 
Early  the  next  morning  Commodore  Patterson  walked 
behind  the  levee  of  the  western  bank  to  a  point  directly 
opposite  the  British  position,  and  spent  several  hours 
there  in  watching  their  movements.  Upon  his  return 
the  general  no  longer  doubted  that  in  a  very  few  days 
or  hours  he  would  have  to  resist  a  simultaneous  attack 
on  both  sides  of  the  river.  The  bustle  in  the  enemy's 
camp,  and  the  forward  state  of  their  preparations,  indi 
cated  that  ere  the  sun  of  another  Sunday  had  appeared 
above  the  horizon  they  might  be  upon  him. 


SECOND  ADVANCE   OF   THE   ENGLISH.          203 

On  Saturday  afternoon  Jackson  was  much  at  his 
high  window  at  headquarters  observing  the  enemy's 
movements.  He  had  done  what  he  could  do  to  prepare 
for  them,  and  little  then  remained  but  to  await  the 
result.  He  had  been  showing  the  lines  to  his  old  friend 
General  Adair,  of  Kentucky,  and  asking  his  opinion  of 
them. 

"  Well,"  said  Jackson  to  Adair,  after  they  had  gone 
the  rounds,  "what  do  you  think  of  our  situation  ?  Can 
we  defend  these  works,  or  not  ?  " 

"  There  is  one  way,"  replied  the  Kentuckian,  "  and 
but  one  way,  in  which  we  can  hope  to  defend  them.  We 
must  have  a  strong  corps  of  reserve  to  meet  the 
enemy's  main  attack,  wherever  it  may  be.  No  single 
part  of  the  lines,"  continued  Adair,  "  is  strong  enough 
to  resist  the  united  force  of  the  enemy.  But  with  a 
strong  column  held  in  our  rear,  ready  to  advance  upon 
any  threatened  point,  we  can  beat  them  off." 

This  was  an  important  suggestion.  Jackson  adopted 
General  Adair's  idea.  "  He  agreed,"  says  Adair,  "  that 
I  should  act  with  the  Kentuckians  as  a  reserve  corps, 
and  directed  me  to  select  my  own  ground  for  en 
campment,  to  govern  my  men  as  I  thought  most 
proper,  and  that  I  would  receive  no  orders  but  from 
himself." 

And  off  to  town  gallops  Adair  on  the  general's  own 
white  horse,  to  prevail  on  the  veteran  guard  to  lend  him 
some  of  their  muskets  for  three  days  only;  so  that  he 
was  able  to  employ  several  hundreds  of  his  troops  in 
that  important  service. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  on  Jackson's  side  of 
the  river.  On  the  western  bank  the  prospect  was  less 
promising.  Commodore  Patterson  was  there,  and  he 
had  spent  the  week  in  arduous  labor  ;  but  all  his  exer 
tions  had  been  directed  toward  the  annoyance  of  the 


204  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

enemy  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  not  to  the  defense 
of  his  own  position.  As  late  as  Wednesday  morning 
nothing  had  been  done  to  prepare  for  an  attack  on  the 
western  bank.  "  During  the  2d  and  3d,"  wrote  Commo 
dore  Patterson  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  "  I  landed 
from  the  ship  and  mounted,  as  the  former  ones,  on  the 
banks  of  the  river,  four  more  twelve-pounders,  and 
erected  a  furnace  for  heating  shot,  to  destroy  a  number 
of  buildings  which  intervened  between  General  Jack 
son's  lines  and  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  and  occupied  by 
him.  On  the  evening  of  the  4th  I  succeeded  in  firing 
a  number  of  them  and  some  rice-stacks  by  my  hot  shot, 
which  the  enemy  attempted  to  extinguish  notwith 
standing  the  heavy  fire  I  kept  up,  but  which  at  length 
compelled  them  to  desist.  On  the  6th  and  yth  I  erected 
another  furnace,  and  mounted  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
two  more  twenty-four  pounders,  which  had  been  brought 
up  from  the  English  Turn  by  the  exertions  of  Colonel 
Caldwell,  of  the  drafted  militia  of  this  State,  and  brought 
within  and  mounted  on  the  intrenchments  on  this  side 
the  river  one  twelve-pounder.  In  addition  to  which, 
General  Morgan,  commanding  the  militia  on  this  side, 
planted  two  brass  six-pound  field-pieces  in  his  lines, 
which  were  incomplete,  having  been  commenced  only  on 
the  4th.  These  three  pieces  were  the  only  cannon  on 
the  lines.  All  the  others,  being  mounted  on  the  bank 
of  the  river,  with  a  view  to  aid  the  right  of  General 
Jackson's  lines  on  the  opposite  shore,  and  to  flank  the 
enemy  should  they  attempt  to  march  up  the  road  lead 
ing  along  the  levee,  or  erect  batteries  on  the  same,  of 
course  could  render  no  aid  in  defense  of  General  Mor 
gan's  lines.  My  battery  was  manned  in  part  from  the 
crew  of  the  ship  and  in  part  by  militia  detailed  for 
that  service  by  General  Morgan,  as  I  had  not  seamen 
enough  to  fully  man  them." 


SECOND   ADVANCE   OF   THE   ENGLISH.          205 

On  Saturday  afternoon,  upon  Commodore  Patterson's 
reporting  to  General  Jackson  what  he  had  observed  at 
the  enemy's  camp,  it  was  determined  to  send  over  the 
river,  to  re-enforce  General  Morgan,  a  body  of  Kentuck- 
ians.  Colonel  Davis  and  four  hundred  of  those  troops 
were  detailed  for  that  purpose.  At  seven  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  after  a  day  of  hard  duty,  during  which  they 
had  only  once  broken  their  fast,  Colonel  Davis  and  his 
men  marched  from  the  lines  toward  New  Orleans,  where 
they  were  to  receive  their  arms  and  cross  the  river  by 
the  ferry.  At  the  city  it  was  found  that  only  two  hun 
dred  muskets,  and  those  old  and  defective,  could  be  pro 
cured.  Only  two  hundred  men,  therefore,  crossed  the 
river.  It  was  two  o'clock  before  they  reached  the  west 
ern  shore.  Fatigued,  hungry,  and  chilled  to  the  bone 
with  long  waiting,  they  formed  upon  the  levee,  and  set 
out  for  General  Morgan's  position.  Over  a  road  miry 
from  the  recent  rains,  walking  sometimes  knee-deep  in 
mud  and  water,  the  Kentuckians  made  their  way,  and 
reached  Morgan's  soon  after  four  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing,  as  unfit  for  any  duty  involving  danger  and  exertion 
as  can  be  imagined. 

Even  with  this  re-enforcement  General  Morgan's 
command  amounted  to  no  more  than  eight  hundred  and 
twelve  men,  all  militia,  all  badly  armed,  posted  behind 
works  upon  which  four  hundred  men  had  labored  for 
three  days.  Jackson  should  have  spared  a  few  com 
panies  of  regulars  for  this  side  of  the  river,  which  had 
suddenly  become  so  important ;  although,  for  his  own 
lines,  he  had  but  three  thousand  two  hundred  men, 
against  an  army  which  he  supposed  to  consist  of  twelve 
thousand  disciplined  troops.  With  another  day  of  prepa 
ration  and  clear  insight  into  the  enemy's  design  he 
would  have  done  something  effectual  for  the  western 
bank.  It  was  too  late  then.  The  days  of  preparation 


2o6  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

were  numbered — were  passed.  Fare  with  him  as  it 
might  to-morrow,  he  could  do  no  more. 

Nolte  tells  us  that  Commodore  Patterson,  on  his  way 
from  headquarters  to  his  post  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  said  to  him  as  he  passed,  "  I  expect  you  will  see 
some  fun  between  this  and  to-morrow."  Nolte  adds 
that  only  himself  and  a  few  others  knew  what  was  ex 
pected.  But  when,  soon  after  dark,  the  noise  of  prepa 
ration  in  the  British  camp  grew  louder  and  came  nearer, 
there  could  not  have  been  much  doubt  in  the  lines  that 
another  most  unquiet  Sunday  was  in  reserve  for  them. 
There  was  much  silent  preparation  in  Jackson's  camp ; 
a  cleaning  of  arms,  a  counting  out  of  cartridges  and 
adjustment  of  flints,  and  a  careful  loading  of  muskets 
and  rifles.  Beside  the  thirty-two-pounder  was  heaped 
up  a  bushel  or  two  of  musket  balls  and  fragments  of 
iron,  enough  to  fill  the  piece  up  to  the  muzzle,  and 
which  will  fill  it  up  to  the  muzzle  if  the  enemy  come  to 
close  quarters.  Jackson  walks  slowly  along  the  lines 
just  before  dark.  He  wears  the  look  of  a  man  whose 
mind  is  wholly  made  up,  and  who  clearly  knows  what  he 
will  do  in  any  and  every  case.  He  stops  occasionally 
to  see  that  the  stacked  muskets  are  all  loaded,  and  says 
to  Planches  men,  as  he  goes  along  their  part  of  the 
lines,  "  Don't  fire  till  you  can  see  the  whites  of  their 
eyes  ;  and  if  you  want  to  sleep,  sleep  upon  your  arms." 

Mishap  befell  the  party  of  British  under  Colonel 
Thornton,  who  were  detailed  for  the  attack  on  the  west 
ern  bank.  The  water,  owing  to  the  fall  of  the  river, 
was  so  low  in  the  canal  that  it  was  not  until  eight  hours 
after  the  appointed  time  of  embarking  that  enough  boats 
were  launched  into  the  Mississippi  to  convey  across  one 
third  of  the  designated  force.  Instead  of  fourteen  hun 
dred  men,  only  four  hundred  and  ninety-eight  went  over. 
Instead  of  embarking  immediately  after  dark,  it  was 


SECOND  ADVANCE  OF   THE  ENGLISH.          2O/ 

nearly  daybreak  before  they  reached  the  opposite  bank. 
Instead  of  landing  directly  opposite  the  British  position, 
the  swift,  deceptive  current  swept  them  down  a  mile  and 
a  half  below  it.  But  this  little  band,  thus  balked  and 
delayed,  was  led  by  a  soldier,  Colonel  W.  Thornton,  the 
most  daring  and  efficient  man  in  the  British  army. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    8TH    OF    JANUARY. 

AT  one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  this  memorable 
day,  on  a  couch  in  a  room  of  the  McCarty  mansion- 
house,  General  Jackson  lay  asleep  in  his  worn  uniform. 
Several  of  his  aides  slept  upon  the  floor  in  the  same 
apartment,  all  equipped  for  the  field.  A  sentinel  paced 
the  adjacent  passage.  Sentinels  moved  noiselessly 
about  the  building,  which  loomed  up  large,  dim,  and 
silent  in  the  foggy  night,  among  the  darkening  trees. 
Most  of  those  who  slept  at  all  that  night  were  still 
asleep,  and  there  was  as  yet  little  stir  in  either  camp  to 
disturb  their  slumbers. 

Commodore  Patterson  was  not  among  the  sleepers. 
Soon  after  dark,  accompanied  by  his  faithful  aide,  Shep 
herd,  he  again  took  his  position  on  the  western  bank  of 
the  river,  directly  opposite  to  where  Colonel  Thornton 
was  struggling  to  launch  his  boats  into  the  stream,  and 
there  he  watched  and  listened  till  nearly  midnight.  He 
could  hear  almost  everything  that  passed,  and  could  see 
by  the  light  of  the  camp  fires  a  line  of  red-coats  drawn 
up  along  the  levee.  He  heard  the  cries  of  the  tugging 
sailors  as  they  drew  the  boats  along  the  shallow,  caving 
canal,  and  their  shouts  of  satisfaction  as  each  boat  was 
launched  with  a  loud  splash  into  the  Mississippi.  From 
the  great  commotion,  and  the  sound  of  so  many  voices, 
he  began  to  surmise  that  the  main  body  of  the  enemy 
were  about  to  cross,  and  that  the  day  was  to  be  lost  or 


THE   EIGHTH  OF  JANUARY.  209 

won  on  his  side  of  the  river.  There  was  terror  in  the 
thought,  and  wisdom  too;  and,  if  General  Pakenham 
had  known  all  that  we  now  know,  the  commodore's  sur 
mise  would  have  been  correct.  Patterson's  first  thought 
was  to  drop  the  ship  Louisiana  down  upon  them.  But 
no;  the  Louisiana  had  been  stripped  of  half  her  guns 
and  all  her  men,  and  had  on  board,  above  water,  hun 
dreds  of  pounds  of  powder,  for  she  was  then  serving  as 
powder-magazine  to  the  western  bank.  To  man  the 
ship,  moreover,  would  involve  the  withdrawal  of  all  the 
men  from  the  river  batteries,  which,  if  the  main  attack 
were  on  Jackson's  side  of  the  river,  would  be  of  such 
vital  importance  to  him. 

Revolving  such  thoughts  in  his  anxious  mind,  Com 
modore  Patterson  hastened  back  to  his  post,  again  ob 
serving  and  lamenting  the  weakness  of  General  Morgan's 
line  of  defense.  All  that  he  could  do  in  the  circum 
stances  was  to  dispatch  Mr.  Shepherd  across  the  river 
to  inform  General  Jackson  of  what  they  had  seen  and 
what  they  feared,  and  to  beg  an  immediate  re-enforce 
ment.  Informing  the  captain  of  the  guard  that  he  had 
important  intelligence  to  communicate,  Shepherd  was 
conducted  to  the  room  in  which  the  general  was  sleeping. 

"  Who's  there  ? "  asked  Jackson,  raising  his  head  as 
the  door  opened. 

Mr.  Shepherd  gave  his  name  and  stated  his  errand, 
adding  that  General  Morgan  agreed  with  Commodore 
Patterson  in  the  opinion  that  more  troops  would  be  re 
quired  to  defend  the  lines  on  the  western  bank. 

"  Hurry  back,"  replied  the  general,  as  he  rose,  "  and 
tell  General  Morgan  that  he  is  mistaken.  The  main  at 
tack  will  be  on  this  side,  and  I  have  no  men  to  spare. 
He  must  maintain  his  position  at  all  hazards." 

Shepherd  recrossed  the  river  with  the  general's  an 
swer,  which  could  not  have  been  very  reassuring  to 


2io  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Morgan  and  his  inexperienced  men,  not  a  dozen  of 
whom  had  ever  been  in  action. 

Jackson  looked  at  his  watch. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  he  to  his  dozing  aides,  "we  have 
slept  enough.  Rise.  I  must  go  and  see  Coffee." 

The  order  was  obeyed  very  promptly.  Sword-belts 
were  buckled,  pistols  resumed,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
party  were  ready  to  begin  the  business  of  the  day. 
There  was  little  for  the  American  troops  to  do  but  to 
repair  to  their  posts.  By  four  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
along  the  whole  line  of  works,  every  man  was  in  his  place 
and  everything  was  ready.  A  little  later  General  Adair 
marched  down  the  reserve  of  a  thousand  Kentuckians  to 
the  rear  of  General  Carroll's  position,  and,  halting  them 
fifty  yards  from  the  works,  went  forward  himself  to  join 
the  line  of  men  peering  over  the  top  of  the  embankment 
into  the  fog  and  darkness  of  the  morning.  The  position 
of  the  reserve  was  fortunately  chosen.  It  was  almost 
directly  behind  that  part  of  the  lines  which  a  deserter 
from  Jackson's  army  had  yesterday  told  General  Paken- 
ham  was  their  weakest  point !  And  the  deserter  was  half 
right.  He  had  deserted  on  Friday,  before  there  had 
been  any  thought  of  the  reserve,  and  he  omitted  to 
mention  that  Coffee  and  Carroll's  men,  over  two  thou 
sand  in  number,  were  the  best  and  coolest  shots  in  the 
world. 

Not  long  after  the  hour  when  the  American  general 
had  been  roused  from  his  couch,  General  Pakenham, 
who  had  slept  an  hour  or  two  at  the  Villere  mansion, 
also  rose,  and  rode  immediately  to  the  bank  of  the  river, 
where  Thornton  had  just  embarked  his  diminished  force. 
He  learned  all  that  the  reader  knows  of  the  delay  and 
difficulty  that  had  there  occurred,  and  lingered  long 
upon  the  spot  listening  for  some  sound  that  should  indi 
cate  the  whereabouts  of  Thornton.  But  no  sound  was 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  2II 

heard,  as  the  swift  Mississippi  had  carried  the  boats  far 
down  out  of  hearing.  Surely  Pakenham  must  have 
known  that  the  vital  part  of  his  plan  was  for  that  morn 
ing  frustrated.  Surely  he  will  hold  back  his  troops  from 
the  assault  until  Thornton  announces  himself.  The 
story  goes  that  he  had  been  irritated  by  a  taunt  of  Ad 
miral  Cochrane,  who  had  said  that  if  the  army  could 
not  take  those  mud-banks,  defended  by  ragged  militia, 
he  would  do  it  with  two  thousand  sailors  armed  only 
with  cutlasses  and  pistols.  And,  besides,  Pakenham  be 
lieved  that  nothing  could  resist  the  calm  and  determined 
onset  of  the  troops  he  led.  He  had  no  thought  of  wait 
ing  for  Thornton,  unless  perhaps  till  daylight. 

Before  four  o'clock  the  British  troops  were  up  and  in 
the  several  positions  assigned  them. 

What  was  the  humor  of  the  troops  ?  As  they  stood 
there  performing  that  most  painful  of  all  military 
duties,  waiting,  there  was  much  of  the  forced  merriment 
with  which  young  soldiers  conceal  from  themselves  the 
real  nature  of  their  feelings.  But  the  older  soldiers 
augured  ill  of  the  coming  attack.  Colonel  Mullens,  of 
the  Forty-fourth,  openly  expressed  his  dissatisfaction. 
"  My  regiment,"  said  he,  "  has  been  ordered  to  execu 
tion.  Their  dead  bodies  are  to  be  used  as  a  bridge  for 
the  rest  of  the  army  to  march  over." 

And,  what  was  worse,  in  the  dense  darkness  of  the 
morning  he  had  gone  by  the  redoubt  where  were  de 
posited  the  fascines  and  ladders,  and  marched  his  men 
to  the  head  of  the  column  without  one  of  them.  Whether 
this  neglect  was  owing  to  accident  or  design  concerns  us 
not.  For  that  and  other  military  sins  Mullens  was  after 
ward  cashiered.  Colonel  Dale,  too,  of  the  Ninety-third 
Highlanders,  a  man  of  far  different  quality  from  Colonel 
Mullens,  was  grave  and  depressed. 

"What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  "  asked  the  physician  of 


212  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

the  regiment,  when  word  was  brought  of  Thornton's  de 
tention. 

Colonel  Dale  made  no  reply  in  words.  Giving  the 
doctor  his  watch  and  a  letter,  he  simply  said,  "  Give 
these  to  my  wife ;  I  shall  die  at  the  head  of  my  regi 
ment."  Soon  after  four,  General  Pakenham  rode  away 
from  the  bank  of  the  river,  saying  to  one  of  his  aides, 
"  I  will  wait  my  own  plan  no  longer." 

He  rode  to  the  quarters  of  General  Gibbs,  who  met 
him  with  another  piece  of  ominous  intelligence.  "  The 
Forty-fourth,"  Gibbs  said,  "  had  not  taken  the  fascines 
and  ladders  to  the  head  of  the  column  ;  but  he  had  sent 
an  officer  to  cause  the  error  to  be  rectified,  and  he  was 
then  expecting  every  moment  a  report  from  that  regi 
ment."  General  Pakenham  instantly  dispatched  Major 
Sir  JohnTylden  to  ascertain  whether  the  regiment  could 
be  got  into  position  in  time.  Tylden  found  the  Forty- 
fourth  just  moving  off  from  the  redoubt,  "  in  a  most  ir 
regular  and  unsoldierlike  manner,  with  the  fascines  and 
ladders.  I  then  returned,"  adds  Tylden  in  his  evidence, 
"  after  some  time,  to  Sir  Edward  Pakenham,  and  reported 
the  circumstance  to  him;  stating  that  by  the  time  which 
had  elapsed  since  I  left  them  they  must  have  arrived  at 
their  situation  in  column." 

This  was  not  half  an  hour  before  dawn.  Without 
waiting  to  obtain  absolute  certainty  upon  a  point  so  im 
portant  as  the  condition  of  the  head  of  his  main  column 
of  attack,  the  impetuous  Pakenham  commanded,  to  use 
the  language  of  one  of  his  own  officers,  "  that  the  fatal, 
ever-fatal  rocket  should  be  discharged  as  a  signal  to 
begin  the  assault  on  the  left."  A  few  minutes  later  a 
second  rocket  whizzed  aloft,  the  signal  of  attack  on  the 
right. 

Daylight  struggled  through  the  mist.  Soon  after  six 
o'clock  both  columns  were  advancing  at  the  steady, 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  213 

solid,  British  pace  to  the  attack  ;  the  Forty-fourth  no 
where,  straggling  in  the  rear  with  the  fascines  and  lad 
ders.  The  column  soon  came  up  with  the  American 
outposts,  who  at  first  retreated  slowly  before  it,  but 
soon  quickened  their  pace  and  ran  in,  bearing  their 
great  news,  and  putting  every  man  in  the  works  in 
tensely  on  the  alert,  each  commander  anxious  for  the 
honor  of  first  getting  a  glimpse  of  the  foe  and  opening 
fire  upon  him. 

Lieutenant  Spotts,  of  battery  number  six,  was  the  first 
man  in  the  American  lines  who  descried  through  the  fog 
the  dim  red  line  of  General  Gibbs's  advancing  column, 
far  away  down  the  plain  close  to  the  forest.  The  thun 
der  of  his  great  gun  broke  the  stillness.  Then  there 
was  silence  again,  for  the  shifting  fog,  or  the  altered 
position  of  the  enemy,  concealed  him  from  view  once 
more.  The  fog  lifted  again,  and  soon  revealed  both 
divisions,  which  with  their  detached  companies  seemed 
to  cover  two  thirds  of  the  plain,  and  gave  the  Americans 
a  repetition  of  the  military  spectacle  which  they  had 
witnessed  on  the  28th  of  December.  Three  cheers  from 
Carroll's  men.  Three  cheers  from  the  Kentuckians  be 
hind  them.  Cheers  continuous  from  the  advancing  col 
umn,  not  heard  yet  in  the  American  lines. 

Steadily  and  fast  the  column  of  General  Gibbs 
marched  toward  batteries  numbered  six,  seven,  and 
eight,  which  played  upon  it  at  first  with  but  occasional 
effect,  often  missing,  sometimes  throwing  a  ball  right 
into  its  midst  and  causing  it  to  reel  and  pause  for  a 
moment.  Promptly  were  the  gaps  filled  up  ;  bravely 
the  column  came  on.  As  they  neared  the  lines  the 
well-aimed  shot  made  more  dreadful  havoc,  "  cutting 
great  lanes  in  the  column  from  front  to  rear,"  and 
tossing  men  and  parts  of  men  aloft,  or  hurling  them 
far  on  one  side.  At  length,  still  steady  and  unbroken, 
15 


214  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

they  came  within  range  of  the  small  arms,  the  rifles 
of  Carroll's  Tennesseeans,  the  muskets  of  Adair's 
Kentuckians,  four  lines  of  sharpshooters,  one  behind 
the  other.  General  Carroll,  coolly  waiting  for  the  right 
moment,  held  his  fire  until  the  enemy  were  within  two 
hundred  yards,  and  then  gave  the  word — "  Fire !  " 

At  first  with  a  certain  deliberation,  afterward  in 
haste,  always  with  effect,  the  riflemen  plied  their  terrible 
weapon.  The  summit  of  the  embankment  was  a  line  of 
fire,  except  where  the  great  guns  showed  their  liquid, 
belching  flash.  The  noise  was  peculiar  and  altogether 
indescribable — a  rolling,  bursting,  echoing  noise,  never 
to  be  forgotten  by  a  man  that  heard  it.  Along  the  whole 
line  it  blazed  and  rolled  ;  the  British  batteries  shower 
ing  rockets  over  the  scene ;  Patterson's  batteries  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river  joining  in  the  concert. 

The  column  of  General  Gibbs,  mowed  by  the  fire  of 
the  riflemen,  still  advanced,  Gibbs  at  its  head.  As 
they  caught  sight  of  the  ditch  some  of  the  officers  cried 
out : 

"  Where  are  the  Forty-fourth  ?  If  we  get  to  the 
ditch,  we  have  no  means  of  crossing  and  scaling  the 
lines!" 

"  Here  comes  the  Forty-fourth  !  Here  comes  the 
Forty-fourth  !  "  shouted  the  general ;  adding  in  an  under 
tone,  for  his  own  private  solace,  that  if  he  lived  till  to 
morrow  he  would  hang  Mullens  on  the  highest  tree  in 
the  cypress  wood. 

Reassured,  these  heroic  men  again  pressed  on  in  the 
face  of  that  murderous  fire.  But  this  could  not  last.  With 
half  its  number  fallen,  and  all  its  commanding  officers 
disabled  except  the  general,  its  pathway  strewed  with 
•dead  and  wounded,  and  the  men  falling  faster  and  faster, 
the  column  wavered  and  reeled  (so  the  American  rifle 
men  thought)  like  a  red  ship  on  a  tempestuous  sea.  At 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  215 

about  a  hundred  yards  from  the  lines  the  front  ranks 
halted,  and  so  threw  the  column  into  disorder,  Gibbs 
shouting  in  the  madness  of  vexation  for  them  to  re-form 
and  advance.  There  was  no  re-forming  under  such  a  fire. 
Once  checked,  the  column  could  not  but  break  and  re 
treat  in  confusion. 

Just  as  the  troops  began  to  falter,  General  Paken- 
ham  rode  up  from  his  post  in  the  rear  toward  the  head 
of  the  column.  Meeting  parties  of  the  Forty-fourth  run 
ning  about  distracted,  some  carrying  fascines,  others 
firing,  others  in  headlong  flight,  their  leader  nowhere  to 
be  seen,  Pakenham  strove  to  restore  them  to  order,  and 
to  urge  them  on  the  way  they  were  to  go. 

"  For  shame  !  "  he  cried  bitterly  ;  "  recollect  that  you 
are  British  soldiers.  This  is  the  road  you  ought  to 

take !  "  pointing  to  the  flashing  and  roaring in 

front. 

Riding  on,  he  was  soon  met  by  General  Gibbs,  who 
said: 

"  I  am  sorry  to  have  to  report  to  you  that  the  troops 
will  not  obey  me.  They  will  not  follow  me." 

Taking  off  his  hat,  General  Pakenham  spurred  his 
horse  to  the  very  front  of  the  wavering  column,  amid  a 
torrent  of  rifle-balls,  cheering  on  the  troops  by  voice, 
by  gesture,  by  example.  At  that  moment  a  ball  shat 
tered  his  right  arm,  and  it  fell  powerless  to  his  side. 
The  next,  his  horse  fell  dead  upon  the  field.  His  aide, 
Captain  McDougal,  dismounted  from  his  black  Creole 
pony,  and  Pakenham,  apparently  unconscious  of  his 
dangling  arm,  mounted  again,  and  followed  the  retreat 
ing  column,  still  calling  upon  them  to  halt  and  re-form. 
A  few  gallant  spirits  ran  in  toward  the  lines,  threw 
themselves  into  the  ditch,  plunged  across  it,  and  fell 
scrambling  up  the  sides  of  the  soft  and  slippery  breast 
work. 


2i6  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Once  out  of  the  reach  of  those  terrible  rifles,  the 
column  halted  and  regained  its  self-possession.  Lay 
ing  aside  their  heavy  knapsacks,  the  men  prepared  for  a 
second  and  more  resolute  advance.  They  were  encour 
aged,  too,  by  seeing  the  Highlanders  marching  up  in 
solid  phalanx  to  their  support  with  a  front  of  a  hundred 
men,  their  bayonets  glittering  in  the  sun,  which  had 
then  begun  to  pierce  the  morning  mist.  At  a  quicker 
step,  with  General  Gibbs  on  its  right,  General  Paken- 
ham  on  the  left,  the  Highlanders  in  clear  and  imposing 
view,  the  column  again  advanced  into  the  fire.  A  fear 
ful  slaughter  ensued !  There  was  one  moment,  when 
that  thirty-two-pounder,  loaded  to  the  muzzle  with  mus 
ket  balls,  poured  its  charge  at  point-blank  range  right 
into  the  head  of  the  column,  literally  leveling  it  with 
the  plain — laying  low,  it  was  afterward  computed,  two 
hundred  men.  The  American  line,  as  one  of  the  British 
officers  remarked,  looked  like  a  row  of  fiery  furnaces! 

The  heroic  Pakenham  had  not  far  to  go  to  meet  his 
doom.  He  was  three  hundred  yards  from  the  line  when 
the  real  nature  of  his  enterprise  seemed  to  flash  upon 
him,  and  he  turned  to  Sir  John  Tylden  and  said : 

"  Order  up  the  reserve." 

Then,  seeing  the  Highlanders  advancing  to  the  sup 
port  of  General  Gibbs,  he,  still  waving  his  hat,  but  wav 
ing  it  now  with  his  left  hand,  cried  out : 

"  Hurrah !  brave  Highlanders !  " 

At  that  moment  a  mass  of  grapeshot,  with  a  terrible 
crash,  struck  the  group  of  which  he  was  the  central 
figure.  One  of  the  shots  tore  open  the  general's  thigh, 
killed  his  horse,  and  brought  horse  and  rider  to  the 
ground.  Captain  McDougal  caught  the  general  in  his 
arms,  removed  him  from  the  fallen  horse,  and  was  sup 
porting  him  upon  the  field,  when  a  second  shot  struck 
the  wounded  man  in  the  groin,  depriving  him  instantly 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  217 

of  consciousness.  He  was  borne  to  the  rear  and  placed 
in  the  shade  of  an  old  live-oak  ;  and  there,  after  gasping 
a  few  minutes,  yielded  up  his'life  without  a  word,  happily 
ignorant  of  the  sad  issue  of  all  his  plans  and  toils. 

A  more  painful  fate  was  that  of  General  Gibbs.  A 
few  moments  after  Pakenham  fell  Gibbs  received  his 
death-wound,  and  was  carried  off  the  field  writhing  in 
agony  and  uttering  fierce  imprecations.  He  lingered 
all  that  day  and  the  succeeding  night,  dying  in  torment 
on  the  morrow.  Nearly  at  the  same  moment  General 
Keanewas  painfully  wounded  in  the  neck  and  thigh,  and 
was  also  borne  to  the  rear.  Colonel  Dale,  of  the  High 
landers,  fulfilled  his  prophecy,  and  fell  at  the  head  of 
his  regiment.  The  Highlanders,  under  Major  Creagh, 
wavered  not,  and  advanced  steadily,  but  too  slowly, 
into  the  very  tempest  of  General  Carroll's  fire,  until 
they  were  within  one  hundred  yards  of  the  lines.  There? 
for  cause  unknown,  they  halted  and  stood,  a  huge  and 
glittering  target,  until  five  hundred  and  forty-four  of 
their  number  had  fallen,  then  broke  and  fled  in  horror 
and  amazement  to  the  rear.  The  column  of  General 
Gibbs  did  not  advance  after  the  fall  of  their  leader. 
Leaving  heaps  of  slain  behind  them,  they,  too,  forsook 
the  bloody  field,  rushed  in  utter  confusion  out  of  the  fire, 
and  took  refuge  at  the  bottom  of  wet  ditches  and  behind 
trees  and  bushes  on  the  borders  of  the  swamp. 

But  not  all  of  them  !  Major  Wilkinson,  followed  by 
Lieutenant  Lavack  and  twenty  men,  pressed  on  to  the 
ditch,  floundered  across  it,  climbed  the  breastwork,  and 
raised  his  head  and  shoulders  above  its  summit,  upon 
which  he  fell,  riddled  with  balls.  The  Tennesseeans  and 
Kentuckians  defending  that  part  of  the  lines,  struck 
with  admiration  at  such  heroic  conduct,  lifted  his  still 
breathing  body  and  conveyed  it  tenderly  behind  the 
works. 


2i8  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"  Bear  up,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  Major  Smiley,  of 
the  Kentucky  reserve;  "you  are  too  brave  a  man  to 
die." 

"  I  thank  you  from  my  heart,"  whispered  the  dying 
man.  "  It's  all  over  with  me.  You  can  render  me  a 
favor ;  it  is  to  communicate  to  my  commander  that  I 
fell  on  your  parapet,  and  died  like  a  soldier  and  a  true 
Englishman." 

Lavack  reached  the  summit  of  the  parapet  unharmed, 
though  with  two  shot-holes  in  his  cap.  He  had  heard 
Wilkinson,  as  they  were  crossing  the  ditch,  cry  out : 

"  Now,  why  don't  the  troops  come  on  ?  The  day  is 
our  own." 

With  these  last  words  in  his  ears,  and  not  looking 
behind  him,  he  had  no  sooner  gained  the  breastwork 
than  he  demanded  the  swords  of  two  American  officers, 
the  first  he  caught  sight  of  in  the  lines. 

"  Oh,  no,"  replied  one  of  them ;  "  you  are  alone, 
and  therefore  ought  to  consider  yourself  our  prisoner." 

Then  Lavack  looked  around,  and  saw  what  is  best 
described  in  his  own  language  : 

"  Now,"  he  would  say,  as  he  told  the  story  afterward 
to  his  comrades,  "conceive  my  indignation,  on  looking 
round,  to  find  that  the  two  leading  regiments  had  van 
ished  as  if  the  earth  had  opened  and  swallowed  them 
up." 

The  earth  had  swallowed  them  up,  or  was  waiting  to 
do  so,  and  the  brave  Lavack  was  a  prisoner.  Lieuten 
ant  Lavack  further  declared  that  when  he  first  looked 
down  behind  the  American  lines  he  saw  the  riflemen 
"  flying  in  a  disorderly  mob,"  which  all  other  witnesses 
deny.  Doubtless  there  was  some  confusion  there,  as 
every  man  was  fighting  his  own  battle,  and  there  was 
much  struggling  to  get  to  the  rampart  to  fire,  and  from 
the  rampart  to  load.  Moreover,  if  the  lines  had  been 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  219 

surmounted  by  the  foe,  a  backward  movement  on  the 
part  of  the  defenders  would  have  been  in  order  and 
necessary. 

Thus,  then,  it  fared  with  the  attack  on  the  weakest 
part  of  the  American  position.  Let  us  see  what  success 
rewarded  the  enemy's  efforts  against  the  strongest. 

Colonel  Rennie,  when  he  saw  the  signal  rocket  as 
cend,  pressed  on  to  the  attack  with  such  rapidity  that 
the  American  outposts  along  the  river  had  to  run  for  it, 
Rennie's  vanguard  close  upon  their  heels.  Indeed,  so 
mingled  seemed  pursuers  and  pursued  that  Captain 
Humphrey  had  to  withhold  his  fire  for  a  few  minutes, 
for  fear  of  sweeping  down  friend  and  foe.  As  the  last 
of  the  Americans  leaped  down  into  the  isolated  redoubt 
British  soldiers  began  to  mount  its  sides.  A  brief  hand- 
to-hand  conflict  ensued  within  the  redoubt  between  the 
party  defending  it  and  the  British  advance.  In  a  sur 
prisingly  short  time  the  Americans,  overpowered  by 
numbers  and  astounded  at  the  suddenness  of  the  attack, 
fled  across  the  plank  and  climbed  over  into  safety  be 
hind  the  lines.  Then  was  poured  into  the  redoubt  a 
deadly  and  incessant  fire,  which  cleared  it  of  the  foe  in 
less  time  than  it  had  taken  them  to  capture  it ;  while 
Humphrey,  with  his  great  guns,  mowed  down  the  still 
advancing  column,  and  Patterson,  from  the  other  side  of 
the  river,  added  the  fire  of  his  powerful  batteries. 

Brief  was  the  unequal  contest.  Colonel  Rennie,  Cap 
tain  Henry,  Major  King,  three  only  of  this  column, 
reached  the  summit  of  the  rampart  near  the  river's  edge. 

"  Hurrah,  boys !  "  cried  Rennie,  already  wounded,  as 
the  three  officers  gained  the  breastwork,  "  hurrah,  boys ! 
the  day  is  ours." 

At  that  moment  Beale's  New  Orleans  sharpshooters, 
withdrawing  a  few  paces  for  better  aim,  fired  a  volley, 
and  the  three  noble  soldiers  fell  headlong  into  the  ditch. 


220  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

That  was  the  end  of  it.  Flight,  tumultuous  flight — some 
running  on  the  top  of  the  levee,  some  under  it,  others 
down  the  road,  while  Patterson's  guns  played  upon  them 
still  with  terrible  effect.  The  three  slain  officers  were 
brought  out  of  the  canal  behind  the  lines,  when,  we  are 
told,  a  warm  discussion  arose  among  the  Rifles  for  the 
honor  of  having  "  brought  down  the  colonel."  Mr. 
Withers,  a  merchant  of  New  Orleans,  and  the  crack  shot 
of  the  company,  settled  the  controversy  by  remarking: 

"  If  he  isn't  hit  above  the  eyebrows,  it  wasn't  my 
shot." 

Upon  examining  the  lifeless  form  of  Rennie  it  was 
found  that  the  fatal  wound  was  indeed  in  the  forehead. 
To  Withers,  therefore,  was  assigned  the  duty  of  sending 
the  watch  and  other  valuables  found  upon  the  person  of 
the  fallen  hero  to  his  widow,  who  was  in  the  fleet  off 
Lake  Borgne.  Such  acts  as  these  made  a  lasting  im 
pression  upon  the  officers  of  the  British  army.  When 
Washington  Irving  was  in  Paris,  in  1822,  Colorel  Thorn 
ton,  who  led  the  attack  on  the  western  bank,  referred 
to  the  sending  back  of  personal  property  of  this  kind  in 
terms  of  warm  commendation. 

A  story  connected  with  the  advance  of  Colonel  Ren- 
nie's  column  is  related  by  Judge  Walker :  "  As  the  de 
tachments  along  the  road  advanced,  their  bugler,  a  boy 
of  fourteen  or  fifteen,  climbing  a  small  tree  within  two 
hundred  yards  of  the  American  lines,  straddled  a  limb 
and  continued  to  blow  the  charge  with  all  his  power. 
There  he  remained  during  the  whole  action,  while  the 
cannon  balls  and  bullets  plowed  the  ground  around  him, 
killed  scores  of  men,  and  tore  even  the  branches  of  the 
tree  in  which  he  sat.  Above  the  thunder  of  the  artillery, 
the  rattling  of  the  musketry  fire,  and  all  the  din  and 
uproar  of  the  strife,  the  shrill  blast  of  the  little  bugler 
could  be  heard;  and  even  when  his  companions  had  fallen 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  22I 

back  and  retreated  from  the  field  he  continued  true  to 
his  duty  and  blew  the  charge  with  undiminished  vigor. 
At  last,  when  the  British  had  entirely  abandoned  the 
ground,  an  American  soldier  passing  from  the  lines  cap 
tured  the  little  bugler  and  brought  him  into  camp,  where 
he  was  greatly  astonished  when  some  of  the  enthusiastic 
Creoles,  who  had  observed  his  gallantry,  actually  em 
braced  him,  and  officers  and  men  vied  with  each  other 
in  acts  of  kindness  to  so  gallant  a  little  soldier." 

The  reserve,  under  General  Lambert,  was  never  or 
dered  up.  Major  Tylden  obeyed  the  last  order  of  his 
general,  and  General  Lambert  had  directed  the  bugler 
to  sound  the  advance.  A  chance  shot  struck  the  bugler's 
uplifted  arm  and  the  instrument  fell  to  the  ground.  The 
charge  was  never  sounded.  General  Lambert  brought 
forward  his  division  far  enough  to  cover  the  retreat  of 
the  broken  columns  and  to  deter  General  Jackson  from 
attempting  a  sortie.  The  chief  command  had  fallen 
upon  Lambert,  and  he  was  overwhelmed  by  the  unex 
pected  and  fearful  issue  of  the  battle. 

How  long  a  time  elapsed  between  the  fire  of  the  first 
American  gun  and  the  total  rout  of  the  attacking  col 
umns  ?  Twenty-five  minutes  !  Not  that  the  American 
fire  ceased  or  even  slackened  at  the  expiration  of  that 
period.  The  riflemen  on  the  left  and  the  troops  on  the 
right  continued  to  discharge  their  weapons  into  the 
smoke  that  hung  over  the  plain  for  two  hours.  But  in 
the  space  of  twenty-five  minutes  the  discomfiture  of  the 
enemy  in  the  open  field  was  complete.  The  battery 
alone  still  made  resistance.  It  required  two  hours  of  a 
tremendous  cannonade  to  silence  its  great  guns  and 
drive  its  defenders  to  the  rear. 

The  scene  behind  the  American  works  during  the  fire 
can  be  easily  imagined.  One  half  of  the  army  never 
fired  a  shot.  The  battle  was  fought  at  the  two  extremi- 


222  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

ties  of  the  lines.  The  battalions  of  Planch^,  Dacquin, 
and  Lacoste,  the  whole  of  the  Fourty-fourth  regiment, 
and  one  half  of  Coffee's  Tennesseeans,  had  nothing  to 
do  but  to  stand  still  at  their  posts  and  chafe  with  vain 
impatience  for  a  chance  to  join  in  the  fight.  The  bat 
teries  alone  at  the  center  of  the  works  contributed  any 
thing  to  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  Yet  that  is  not  quite 
correct.  "  The  moment  the  British  came  into  view,  and 
their  signal  rocket  pierced  the  sky  with  its  fiery  train, 
the  band  of  the  Battalion  d'Orleans  struck  up  'Yankee 
Doodle,'  and  thenceforth  throughout  the  action  it  did 
not  cease  to  discourse  all  the  national  and  military  airs 
in  which  it  had  been  instructed." 

When  the  action  began,  Jackson  walked  along  the 
left  of  the  lines,  speaking  a  few  words  of  good  cheer  to 
the  men  as  he  passed  the  several  corps. 

"  Stand  to  your  guns.  Don't  waste  your  ammunition. 
See  that  every  shot  tells.  Let  us  finish  the  business  to 
day." 

Such  words  as  these  escaped  him  now  and  then,  the 
men  not  engaged  cheering  him  as  he  went  by.  As  the 
battle  became  general,  he  took  a  position  on  ground 
slightly  elevated,  near  the  center,  which  commanded  a 
view  of  the  scene.  There,  with  mind  intensely  excited, 
he  watched  the  progress  of  the  strife.  When  it  became 
evident  that  the  enemy's  columns  were  finally  broken, 
Major  Hinds,  whose  dragoons  were  drawn  up  in  the 
rear,  entreated  the  general  for  permission  to  dash  out 
upon  them  in  pursuit.  It  was  a  tempting  offer  to  such 
a  man  as  Jackson.  But  prudence  prevailed,  and  the  re 
quest  was  refused. 

At  eight  o'clock,  there  being  no  signs  of  a  renewed 
attack,  and  no  enemy  in  sight,  an  order  was  sent  along 
the  lines  to  cease  firing  with  the  small  arms.  The  gen 
eral,  surrounded  by  his  staff,  then  walked  from  end  to 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  223 

end  of  the  works,  stopping  at  each  battery  and  post  and 
addressing  a  few  words  of  congratulation  and  praise  to 
their  defenders.  It  was  a  proud,  glad  moment  for  these 
men  when,  panting  from  their  labor,  blackened  with 
smoke  and  sweat,  they  listened  to  the  general's  burning 
words  and  saw  the  light  of  victory  in  his  countenance. 
With  particular  warmth  he  thanked  and  commended 
Beale's  little  band  ok  riflemen,  the  companies  of  the 
Seventh,  and  Humphrey's  artillerymen,  who  had  so  gal 
lantly  beaten  back  the  column  of  Colonel  Rennie. 
Heartily,  too,  he  extolled  the  wonderful  firing  of  the 
divisions  of  General  Carroll  and  General  Adair,  not  for 
getting  Coffee,  who  had  dashed  out  upon  the  black 
skirmishers  in  the  swamp  and  driven  them  out  of  sight 
in  ten  minutes. 

This  joyful  ceremony  over,  the  artillery,  which  had 
continued  to  play  upon  the  British  batteries,  ceased  their 
fire  for  the  guns  to  cool  and  the  dense  smoke  to  roll  off. 
The  whole  army  crowded  to  the  parapet  and  looked 
over  into  the  field.  What  a  scene  was  gradually  dis 
closed  to  them !  That  gorgeous  and  imposing  military 
array,  the  two  columns  of  attack,  the  Highland  phalanx, 
the  distant  reserve — all  had  vanished  like  an  apparition. 
Far  away  down  the  plain  the  glass  revealed  a  faint  red 
line  still  receding.  Nearer  to  the  lines  "  we  could  see," 
says  Nolte,  "the  British  troops  concealing  themselves 
behind  the  shrubbery,  or  throwing  themselves  into  the 
ditches  and  gullies.  In  some  of  the  latter,  indeed,  they 
lay  so  thickly  that  they  were  only  distinguishable  in  the 
distance  by  the  white  shoulder-belts,  which  formed  a 
line  along  the  top  of  their  hiding-place." 

Still  nearer,  the  plain  was  covered  and  heaped  with 
dead  and  wounded,  as  well  as  with  those  who  had  fallen 
paralyzed  by  fear  alone.  "  I  never  had,"  Jackson  would 
say,  "  so  grand  and  awful  an  idea  of  the  resurrection  as 


224  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

on  that  day.  After  the  smoke  of  the  battle  had  cleared 
off  somewhat  I  saw  in  the  distance  more  than  five 
hundred  Britons  emerging  from  the  heaps  of  their 
dead  comrades  all  over  the  plain,  rising  up,  and  still 
more  distinctly  visible  as  the  field  became  clearer,  com 
ing  forward  and  surrendering  as  prisoners  of  war  to  our 
soldiers.  They  had  fallen  at  our  first  fire  upon  them 
without  having  received  so  much  as  a  scratch,  and  lay 
prostrate  as  if  dead  until  the  close  of  the  action." 

The  American  army  were  appalled  and  silenced  at 
the  scene  before  them.  The  writhings  of  the  Bounded, 
their  shrieks  and  groans,  their  convulsive  and  sudden 
tossing  of  limbs,  were  horrible  to  see  and  hear.  Seven 
hundred  killed,  fourteen  hundred  wounded,  five  hundred 
prisoners,  were  the  result  of  that  twenty-five  minutes' 
work.  Jackson's  loss  was  eight  killed  and  thirteen 
wounded.  Two  men  were  killed  at  the  left  of  the  lines, 
two  in  the  isolated  redoubt,  and  four  in  the  swamp  pur 
suing  the  skirmishers. 

General  Jackson  had  no  sooner  finished  his  round  of 
congratulations,  and  beheld  the  completeness  of  his  vic 
tory  on  the  eastern  bank,  than  he  began  to  cast  anxious 
glances  across  the  river,  wondering  at  the  silence  of 
Morgan's  lines  and  Patterson's  guns.  They  flashed  and 
spoke  at  length.  Jackson  and  Adair,  mounting  the 
breastwork,  saw  Thornton's  column  advancing  to  the 
attack,  and  saw  Morgan's  men  open  fire  upon  them  vig 
orously.  All  is  well,  thought  Jackson. 

"  Take  off  your  hats  and  give  them  three  cheers  !  " 
shouted  the  general,  though  Morgan's  division  was  a 
mile  and  a  half  distant. 

The  order  was  obeyed,  and  the  whole  army  watched 
the  action  with  intense  interest,  not  doubting  that  the 
gallant  Kentuckians  and  Louisianians  on  that  side  of  the 
river  would  soon  drive  back  the  British  column,  as  they 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY. 

themselves  had  just  driven  back  those  of  Gibbs  and 
Rennie.  These  men  had  become  used  to  seeing  British 
columns  recoil  and  vanish  before  their  fire.  Not  a 
thought  of  disaster  on  the  western  bank  crossed  their 
elated  minds. 

Yet  Thornton  carried  the  day  on  the  western  bank. 
Even  while  the  men  were  in  the  act  of  cheering,  General 
Jackson  saw  with  mortification,  never  forgotten  by  him 
while  he  drew  breath,  the  division  under  General  Mor 
gan  abandon  their  position  and  run  in  headlong  flight 
toward  the  city.  Clouds  of  smoke  soon  obscured  the 
scene,  but  the  flashes  of  the  musketry  advanced  up 
the  river,  disclosing  to  General  Adair  and  his  men  the 
humiliating  fact  that  their  comrades  had  not  rallied,  but 
were  still  in  swift  retreat  before  the  foe.  In  a  moment 
the  elation  of  General  Jackson's  troops  was  changed  to 
anger  and  apprehension. 

Fearing  the  worst  consequences,  and  fearing  them 
with  reason,  the  general  leaped  down  from  the  breast 
work  and  made  instant  preparations  for  sending  over  a 
powerful  re-enforcement.  At  all  hazards  the  western 
bank  must  be  regained.  All  is  lost  if  it  be  not.  Let  but 
the  enemy  have  free  course  up  the  western  bank,  with  a 
mortar  and  a  twelve-pounder,  and  New  Orleans  will  be 
at  their  mercy  in  two  hours !  Nay,  let  Commodore  Pat 
terson  but  leave  one  of  his  guns  unspiked,  and  Jackson's 
lines,  raked  by  it  from  river  to  swamp,  are  untenable ! 
All  this,  which  was  immediately  apparent  to  the  mind  of 
General  Jackson,  was  understood  also  by  all  of  his  army 
who  had  reflected  upon  their  position.  Indeed,  by  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning  the  British  were  masters  of  the 
western  bank,  although,  owing  to  the  want  of  available 
artillery,  their  triumph  for  the  moment  was  a  fruitless 
one.  On  one  of  the  guns  captured  in  General  Morgan's 
lines  the  victors  read  this  inscription :  "  Taken  at  the 


226  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

surrender  of  Yorktown,  1781."  In  a  tent  behind  the 
lines  they  found  the  ensign  of  one  of  the  Louisiana 
regiments,  which  still  hangs  in  Whitehall,  London,  bear 
ing  these  words  :  "  Taken  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans, 
Jan.  8th,  1815." 

General  Lambert,  stunned  by  the  events  of  the  morn 
ing,  was  morally  incapable  of  improving  this  important 
success.  And  it  was  well  for  him  and  for  his  army  that 
he  was  so.  Soldiers  there  have  been  who  would  have 
seen  in  Thornton's  triumph  the  means  of  turning  the 
tide  of  disaster  and  snatching  victory  from  the  jaws  of 
defeat.  But  General  Lambert  found  himself  suddenly 
invested  with  the  command  of  an  army  which,  besides 
having  lost  a  third  of  its  effective  force,  was  almost 
destitute  of  field  officers.  The  mortality  among  the 
higher  grade  of  officers  had  been  frightful.  Three  ma 
jor-generals,  eight  colonels  and  lieutenant-colonels,  six 
majors,  eighteen  captains,  and  fifty-four  subalterns,  were 
among  the  killed  and  wounded.  In  such  circumstances, 
Lambert,  instead  of  hurrying  over  artillery  and  re-en 
forcements,  and  marching  on  New  Orleans,  did  a  less 
spirited  but  a  wiser  thing:  he  sent  over  an  officer  to 
survey  General  Morgan's  lines,  and  ascertain  how  many 
men  would  be  required  to  hold  them.  In  other  words, 
he  sent  over  an  officer  to  bring  him  back  a  plausible  ex 
cuse  for  abandoning  Colonel  Thornton's  conquest.  And 
during  the  absence  of  the  officer  on  this  errand  the  Brit 
ish  general  resolved  upon  a  measure  still  more  pacific. 

General  Jackson,  meanwhile,  was  intent  upon  dis 
patching  his  re-enforcement.  It  never  for  one  moment 
occurred  to  his  warlike  mind  that  the  British  general 
would  relinquish  so  vital  an  advantage  without  a  desper 
ate  struggle,  and  accordingly  he  prepared  for  a  desper 
ate  struggle.  Organizing  promptly  a  strong  body  of 
troops,  he  placed  it  under  the  command  of  General 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY. 

Humbert,  a  refugee  officer  of  distinction  who  had  led 
the  French  revolutionary  expedition  into  Ireland  in 
1798,  and  was  then  serving  in  the  lines  as  a  volunteer. 
Humbert,  besides  being  the  only  general  officer  that 
Jackson  could  spare  from  his  own  position,  was  a  soldier 
of  high  repute  and  known  courage,  a  martinet  in  disci 
pline,  and  a  man  versed  in  the  arts  of  European  warfare. 
About  eleven  o'clock  the  re-enforcement  left  the  camp, 
with  orders  to  hasten  across  the  river  by  the  ferry  at 
New  Orleans  and  march  down  toward  the  enemy,  and, 
after  effecting  a  junction  with  General  Morgan's  troops, 
to  attack  him  and  drive  him  from  the  lines.  Before 
noon  Humbert  was  well  on  his  way. 

Soon  after  midday,  some  American  troops  who  were 
walking  about  the  blood-stained  field  in  front  of  Jack 
son's  position  perceived  a  British  party  of  novel  aspect 
approaching.  It  consisted  of  an  officer  in  full  uniform, 
a  trumpeter,  and  a  soldier  bearing  a  white  flag.  Halt 
ing  at  the  distance  of  three  hundred  yards  from  the 
breastwork,  the  trumpeter  blew  a  blast  upon  his  bugle, 
which  brought  the  whole  army  to  the  edge  of  the  para 
pet,  gazing  with  eager  curiosity  upon  this  unexpected 
but  not  unwelcome  spectacle.  Colonel  Butler  and  two 
other  officers  were  immediately  dispatched  by  General 
Jackson  to  receive  the  message  thus  announced.  After 
an  exchange  of  courteous  salutations,  the  British  officer 
handed  Colonel  Butler  a  letter  directed  to  the  American 
commander-in-chief,  which  proved  to  be  a  proposal  for 
an  armistice  of  twenty-four  hours,  that  the  dead  might 
be  buried  and  the  wounded  removed  from  the  field. 
The  letter  was  signed  "  Lambert,"  a  device,  as  was  con 
jectured,  to  conceal  from  Jackson  the  death  of  the  Brit- 
ish  general  in  command. 

The  sprinkling  of  Scottish  blood  that  flowed  in  Jack 
son's  veins  asserted  itself  on  this  occasion.  Time  was 


228  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

now  an  all-important  object  with  him,  since  Humbert 
and  his  command  could  not  yet  have  crossed  the  river, 
and  Jackson's  whole  soul  was  bent  on  the  regaining  of 
the  western  bank. 

"Lambert?"  thought  the  general.  "Who  is  Lam 
bert  ? " 

Major  Butler  was  ordered  to  return  to  the  flag  of 
truce,  and  to  say  that  Major-General  Jackson  would  be 
happy  to  receive  any  communication  from  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  British  army  ;  but  as  to  the  letter 
signed  "  Lambert,"  Major-General  Jackson,  not  know 
ing  the  rank  and  powers  of  that  gentleman,  must  beg  to 
decline  corresponding  with  him. 

The  flag  departed,  but  returned  in  half  an  hour  with 
the  same  proposal,  signed  "  John  Lambert,  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  British  forces."  Jackson's  answer  was 
prompt  and  ingenious.  Humbert,  by  this  time,  he 
thought,  if  he  had  not  crossed  the  river,  must  be  near 
crossing,  and  might,  in  a  diplomatic  sense,  be  considered 
crossed.  Jackson  therefore  consented  to  an  armistice 
on  the  eastern  bank,  expressly  stipulating  that  hostili 
ties  were  not  to  be  suspended  on  the  western  side  of  the 
river,  and  that  neither  party  should  send  over  re-en 
forcements  until  the  expiration  of  the  armistice! 

When  this  reply  reached  General  Lambert  he  had 
not  yet  received  the  report  from  the  western  bank,  and 
was  still  in  some  degree  undecided  as  to  the  course  he 
should  pursue  there.  With  the  next  return  of  the  flag, 
therefore,  came  a  request  from  Lambert  for  time  to 
consider  General  Jackson's  reply.  To-morrow  morning, 
at  ten  o'clock,  he  would  send  a  definite  answer.  The 
cannonade  from  the  lines  continued  through  the  after 
noon,  and  the  troops  stood  at  their  posts,  not  certain 
that  they  would  not  again  be  attacked. 

Early  in  the  afternoon  the  officer  returned  from  his 


THE   EIGHTH   OF  JANUARY.  229 

inspection  of  the  works  on  the  western  bank,  and  gave 
it  as  his  opinion  that  they  could  not  be  held  with  less 
than  two  thousand  men.  General  Lambert  at  once  sent 
an  order  to  Colonel  Gubbins  to  abandon  the  works,  and 
to  recross  the  river  with  his  whole  command.  The  order 
was  not  obeyed  without  difficulty,  for  by  this  time  the 
Louisianians,  urged  by  a  desire  to  retrieve  the  fortunes 
of  the  day  and  their  own  honor,  began  to  approach  the 
lost  redoubts  in  considerable  bodies. 

With  what  alacrity  Commodore  Patterson  and  Gen 
eral  Morgan  then  rushed  to  their  redoubts  and  batteries ; 
with  what  assiduity  the  sailors  bored  out  the  spikes  of 
the  guns,  toiling  at  the  work  all  the  next  night ;  with 
what  zeal  the  troops  labored  to  strengthen  the  lines; 
with  what  joy  Jackson  heard  the  tidings,  may  be  left  to 
the  reader  to  imagine. 

The  dead  in  front  of  Jackson's  lines,  scattered  and 
heaped  upon  the  field,  lay  all  night  a  spectacle  of  hor 
ror  to  the  American  outposts  stationed  in  their  midst. 
Many  of  the  wounded  succeeded  in  crawling  or  tottering 
back  to  their  camp.  Many  more  were  brought  in  behind 
the  lines  and  conveyed  to  New  Orleans,  where  they 
received  every  humane  attention.  But  probably  some 
hundreds  of  poor  fellows,  hidden  in  the  wood  or  lying 
motionless  in  ditches,  lingered  in  unrelieved  agony  all 
that  day  and  night,  until  late  in  the  following  morning. 
As  soon  as  it  was  dark,  many  uninjured  soldiers,  who 
had  lain  in  the  ditches  and  shrubbery,  rejoined  their 
comrades  in  the  rear. 

The  news  of  the  great  victory  electrified  the  nation, 
and  raised  it  from  the  lowest  pitch  of  despondency.  All 
the  large  cities  were  illuminated  in  the  evening  after  the 
glad  tidings  reached  them.  Before  the  rejoicings  were 
over  came  news  still  more  joyful — that  the  commission 
ers  at  Ghent  had  signed  a  treaty  of  peace.  The  war  was 
16 


230  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

at  an  end.  A  courier  was  promptly  dispatched  from 
Washington  to  New  Orleans  to  convey  to  General  Jack 
son  the  news  of  peace.  Furnished  by  the  postmaster- 
general  with  a  special  order  to  his  deputies  on  the  route 
to  facilitate  the  progress  of  the  messenger  by  all  the 
means  in  their  power,  he  traveled  with  every  advantage, 
and  made  great  speed.  He  left  Washington  on  the  i5th 
of  February,  thirty-eight  days  after  the  battle.  He  has 
a  fair  month's  journey  before  him,  which  he  will  perform 
in  nineteen  days. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

END    OF    THE    CAMPAIGN. 

How  pleasant  it  would  be  to  dismiss  now  the  con 
queror  home  to  his  Hermitage,  to  enjoy  the  congratula 
tions  of  his  neighbors  and  the  plaudits  of  a  nation  whose 
pride  he  had  so  keenly  gratified !  His  work  was  not 
done.  The  next  three  months  of  his  life  at  New  Orleans 
were  crowded  with  events,  many  of  which  were  delight 
ful,  many  of  which  were  painful  in  the  extreme. 

The  trials  of  the  American  army,  so  far  as  its  pa 
tience  was  concerned,  began,  not  ended,  with  the  vic 
tory  of  the  8th  of  January.  The  rains  descended  and 
the  floods  came  upon  the  soft  delta  of  the  Mississippi, 
converting  both  camps  into  quagmires.  Relieved  of 
care,  relieved  from  toil,  yet  compelled  to  keep  the  field 
by  night  and  day,  the  greater  part  of  the  American 
army  had  nothing  to  do  but  endure  the  inevitable 
miseries  of  the  situation.  Disease  began  its  fell  work 
among  them — malignant  influenza,  fevers,  and,  worst 
of  all,  dysentery.  Major  Latour  computes  that  during 
the  few  weeks  that  elapsed  between  the  8th  of  January 
and  the  end  of  the  campaign,  five  hundred  of  Jackson's 
army  died  from  these  complaints — a  far  greater  number 
than  had  fallen  in  action.  While  the  enemy  remained 
there  was  no  repining.  The  sick  men,  yellow  and  gaunt, 
staggered  into  the  hospitals  when  they  could  no  longer 
stand  to  their  posts,  and  lay  down  to  die  without  a 
murmur. 


232  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

For  ten  days  after  the  battle  the  English  army  re 
mained  in  their  encampment,  deluged  with  rain  and 
flood,  and  played  upon  at  intervals  by  the  American 
batteries  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  They  seemed  to 
be  totally  inactive.  They  were  not  so.  General  Lam 
bert,  from  the  day  of  the  great  defeat,  was  resolved  to 
retire  to  the  shipping.  But  that  had  now  become  an 
affair  of  extreme  difficulty,  as  an  English  officer  ex 
plains  : 

"  In  spite  of  our  losses,"  he  says,  "  there  were  not 
throughout  the  armament  a  sufficient  number  of  boats 
to  transport  above  one  half  of  the  army  at  a  time.  If, 
however,  we  should  separate,  the  chances  were  that 
both  parties  would  be  destroyed ;  for  those  embarked 
might  be  intercepted,  and  those  left  behind  would  be 
obliged  to  cope  with  the  entire  American  force.  Be 
sides,  even  granting  that  the  Americans  might  be  re 
pulsed,  it  would  be  impossible  to  take  to  our  boats  in 
their  presence,  and  thus  at  least  one  division,  if  not 
both,  must  be  sacrificed. 

"  To  obviate  this  difficulty,  prudence  required  that 
the  road  which  we  had  formed  on  landing  should  be 
continued  to  the  very  margin  of  the  lake,  while  appear 
ances  seemed  to  indicate  the  total  impracticability  of 
the  scheme.  From  firm  ground  to  the  water's  edge  was 
here  a  distance  of  many  miles,  through  the  very  center 
of  a  morass  where  human  foot  had  never  before  trod 
den.  Yet  it  was  desirable  at  least  to  make  the  attempt ; 
for  if  it  failed  we  should  only  be  reduced  to  our  former 
alternative  of  gaining  a  battle  or  surrendering  at  dis 
cretion. 

"  Having  determined  to  adopt  this  course,  General 
Lambert  immediately  dispatched  strong  working  par 
ties,  under  the  guidance  of  engineer  officers,  to  lengthen 
the  road,  keeping  as  near  as  possible  to  the  margin  of 


END  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN.  233 

the  creek.  But  the  task  assigned  to  them  was  burdened 
with  difficulties.  For  the  extent  of  several  leagues  no 
firm  footing  could  be  discovered  on  which  to  rest  the 
foundation  of  a  path,  nor  any  trees  to  assist  in  forming 
hurdles.  All  that  could  be  done,  therefore,  was  to  bind 
together  large  quantities  of  reeds  and  lay  them  across 
the  quagmire,  by  which  means  at  least  the  semblance 
of  a  road  was  produced,  however  wanting  in  firmness 
and  solidity  ;  but  where  broad  ditches  came  in  the  way, 
many  of  which  intersected  the  morass,  the  workmen 
were  necessarily  obliged  to  apply  more  durable  materials. 
For  these,  bridges  composed  in  part  of  large  branches, 
brought  with  immense  labor  from  the  woods,  were  con 
structed,  but  they  were,  on  the  whole,  little  superior 
in  point  of  strength  to  the  rest  of  the  path,  for,  though 
the  edges  were  supported  by  timber,  the  middle  was 
filled  up  only  by  reeds." 

It  required  nine  days  of  incessant  and  arduous  labor 
to  complete  the  road.  The  wounded  were  then  sent  on 
board,  except  eighty  who  could  not  be  removed.  The 
abandoned  guns  were  spiked  and  broken.  In  the  even 
ing  of  the  i8th  the  main  body  of  the  army  commenced 
its  retreat.  "Trimming  the  fires,"  continues  the  Brit 
ish  officer,  "and  arranging  all  things  in  the  same  order 
as  if  no  change  were  to  take  place,  regiment  after  regi 
ment  stole  away,  as  soon  as  darkness  concealed  their 
motions ;  leaving  the  pickets  to  follow  as  a  rear  guard, 
but  with  strict  injunctions  not  to  retire  till  daylight 
began  to  appear.  As  may  be  supposed,  the  most  pro 
found  silence  was  maintained ;  not  a  man  opening  his 
mouth  except  to  issue  necessary  orders,  and  even  then 
speaking  in  a  whisper.  Not  a  cough  or  any  other  noise 
was  to  be  heard  from  the  head  to  the  rear  of  the  col 
umn  ;  and  even  the  steps  of  the  soldiers  were  planted 
with  care,  to  prevent  the  slightest  stamping  or  echo." 


234  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

With  an  ignominious  wallow  in  the  mire  ("  the  whole 
army,"  as  another  narrator  remarks,  "  covered  with  mud 
from  the  top  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  foot  ")  the 
Wellington  heroes  ended  their  month's  exertions  in  the 
delta  of  the  Mississippi.  They  were  in  mortal  terror  of 
the  alligators,  it  appears,  whose  domain  they  had  in 
truded  upon.  "Just  before  dark,  on  the  night  of  the  re 
treat,"  says  Captain  Cooke,  "  I  saw  an  alligator  emerge 
from  the  water  and  penetrate  the  wilderness  of  reeds 
which  encircled  us  on  this  muddy  quagmire  as  far  as 
the  eye  could  reach.  The  very  idea  of  the  monster 
prowling  about  in  the  stagnant  swamp  took  possession 
of  my  mind  in  a  most  forcible  manner ;  to  look  out  for 
the  enemy  was  a  secondary  consideration.  The  word 
was,  *  Look  out  for  alligators ! '  Nearly  the  whole  night 
I  stood  a  few  paces  from  the  entrance  of  the  hut,  not 
daring  to  enter,  under  the  apprehension  that  an  alligator 
might  push  a  broad  snout  through  the  reeds  and  gobble 
me  up.  The  soldiers  slept  in  a  lump.  At  length,  being 
quite  worn  out  from  want  of  sleep,  I  summoned  up 
courage  to  enter  the  hut,  but  often  started  wildly  out 
of  my  feverish  slumbers,  involuntarily  laying  hold  of 
my  naked  sword,  and  conjuring  up  every  rustling  noise 
among  the  reeds  to  be  one  of  those  disgusting  brutes, 
with  a  mouth  large  enough  to  swallow  an  elephant's 
leg." 

The  retreat  was  so  well  managed  (General  Lambert 
was  knighted  for  it  soon  after)  that  the  sun  was  high  in 
the  heavens  on  the  following  morning  before  the  Amer 
ican  army  had  any  suspicion  of  the  departure  of  the 
enemy.  And  when  it  began  to  be  suspected,  some  fur 
ther  time  elapsed  before  the  fact  was  ascertained.  Their 
camp  presented  the  same  appearance  as  it  had  for  many 
days  previous.  Sentinels  seemed  to  be  posted  as  before, 
and  flags  were  flying.  The  American  general  and  his 


END  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN.  235 

aides,  from  the  high  window  at  headquarters,  surveyed 
the  position  through  the  glass,  and  were  inclined  to 
think  that  the  enemy  were  only  lying  low,  with  a  view 
to  draw  the  troops  out  of  the  lines  into  the  open  plain. 
The  veteran  General  Humbert,  a  Frenchman,  surpassed 
the  acuteness  of  the  backwoodsmen  on  this  occasion. 
Being  called  upon  for  his  opinion,  he  took  the  glass  and 
spied  the  deserted  camp. 

"They  are  gone,"  said  he,  with  the  air  of  a  man  who 
is  certain. 

"  How  do  you  know  ?  "  inquired  the  general. 

The  old  soldier  replied  by  directing  attention  to  a 
crow  that  was  flying  close  to  what  had  been  supposed  to 
be  one  of  the  enemy's  sentinels.  The  proximity  of  the 
crow  showed  that  the  sentinel  was  a  "  dummy,"  and  so 
ill-made,  too,  that  it  was  not  even  a  good  scarecrow. 
The  game  was  now  apparent,  yet  the  general  ordered 
out  a  party  to  reconnoiter.  While  it  was  forming,  a 
British  medical  officer  approached  the  lines,  bearing  a 
letter  from  General  Lambert,  which  announced  his  de 
parture,  and  recommended  to  the  humanity  of  the  Amer 
ican  commander  the  eighty  wounded  men  who  were 
necessarily  left  behind.  There  could  now  be  little  doubt 
of  the  retreat,  but  Jackson  was  still  wary,  and  restrained 
the  exultant  impetuosity  of  the  men,  who  were  disposed 
at  once  to  visit  the  abandoned  camp.  Sending  Major 
Hinds's  dragoons  to  harass  the  retreat  of  the  army,  if  it 
had  not  already  gone  beyond  reach,  and  dispatching  his 
surgeon-general  to  the  wounded  soldiers  left  to  his  care, 
the  general  himself,  with  his  staff,  rode  to  the  enemy's 
camp.  He  saw  that  they  had  indeed  departed,  and 
that  his  own  triumph  was  complete  and  irreversible. 
Fourteen  pieces  of  cannon  were  found  deserted  and 
spoiled,  and  much  other  property,  public  and  private. 
For  one  item,  three  thousand  cannon  balls  were  picked 


236  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

up  on  the  field  and  piled  behind  the  American  ramparts 
by  the  Kentuckian  troops. 

The  general  visited  the  hospital  and  assured  the 
wounded  officers  and  soldiers  of  his  protection  and  care — 
a  promise  which  was  promptly  and  amply  fulfilled.  "  The 
circumstances  of  these  wounded  men,"  says  Mr.  Walker, 
"  being  made  known  in  the  city,  a  number  of  ladies  rode 
down  in  their  carriages  with  such  articles  as  were  deemed 
essential  to  the  comfort  of  the  unfortunates.  One  of 
these  ladies  was  a  belle  of  the  city,  famed  for  her  charms 
of  person  and  mind.  Seeing  her  noble  philanthropy  and 
devotion  to  his  countrymen,  one  of  the  British  surgeons 
conceived  a  warm  regard  and  admiration,  which  subse 
quent  acquaintance  ripened  into  love.  This  surgeon 
settled  in  New  Orleans  after  the  war,  espoused  the 
Creole  lady  whose  acquaintance  he  had  made  under 
such  interesting  circumstances,  and  became  an  esteemed 
citizen  and  the  father  of  a  large  family."  Dr.  J.  C.  Kerr 
was  the  hero  of  this  romantic  story.  He  lived  until 
within  these  few  years.  A  son  of  his  was  that  Victor 
Kerr  who  was  executed  at  Havana  with  General  Lopez 
and  Colonel  Crittenden  in  1851 — his  last  words,  "I  die 
like  a  Louisianian  and  a  freeman  !  " 

Two  days  later  the  main  body  of  the  American  troops 
returned  to  New  Orleans.  "  The  arrival  of  the  army," 
says  Major  Latour,  who  saw  the  spectacle,  "  was  a  tri 
umph.  The  noncombatant  part  of  the  population  of 
New  Orleans — that  is,  the  aged,  the  infirm,  the  matrons, 
daughters,  and  children — all  went  out  to  meet  their  de 
liverers,  to  receive  with  felicitations  the  saviors  of  their 
country.  Every  countenance  was  expressive  of  grati 
tude;  joy  sparkled  in  every  feature  on  beholding  fathers, 
brothers,  husbands,  sons,  who  had  so  recently  saved  the 
lives,  fortunes,  and  honor  of  their  families  by  repelling 
an  enemy  come  to  conquer  and  subjugate  the  country. 


END  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN.  237 

Nor  were  the  sensations  of  the  brave  soldiers  less  lively 
on  seeing  themselves  about  to  be  compensated  for  all 
their  sufferings  by  the  enjoyment  of  domestic  felicity. 
They  once  more  embraced  the  objects  of  their  tenderest 
affections,  were  hailed  by  them  as  their  saviors  and  de 
liverers,  and  felt  conscious  that  they  had  deserved  the 
honorable  title.  How  light,  how  trifling,  how  inconsider 
able  did  their  past  toils  and  dangers  appear  to  them  at 
this  glorious  moment !  All  was  forgotten,  all  painful 
recollections  gave  way  to  the  most  exquisite  sensations 
of  inexpressible  joy." 

A  few  days  after  the  return  of  the  army  the  general 
went  in  state  to  the  cathedral.  "  A  temporary  arch," 
continues  Major  Latour,  "  was  erected  in  the  middle  of 
the  grand  square,  opposite  the  principal  entrance  of 
the  cathedral.  The  different  uniformed  companies  of 
Planches  battalion  lined  both  sides  of  the  way,  from 
the  entrance  of  the  square  toward  the  river  to  the 
church.  The  balconies  of  the  windows  of  the  city  hall, 
the  parsonage  house,  and  all  the  adjacent  buildings, 
were  filled  with  spectators.  The  whole  square  and  the 
streets  leading  to  it  were  thronged  with  people.  The 
triumphal  arch  was  supported  by  six  columns.  Among 
those  on  the  right  was  a  young  lady  representing  Justice, 
and  on  the  left  another  representing  Liberty.  Under 
the  arch  were  two  young  children,  each  on  a  pedestal, 
holding  a  crown  of  laurel.  From  the  arch  in  the  middle 
of  the  square  to  the  church,  at  proper  intervals,  were 
ranged  young  ladies  representing  the  different  States 
and  Territories  composing  the  American  Union,  all 
dressed  in  white,  covered  with  transparent  veils,  and 
wearing  a  silver  star  on  their  foreheads.  Each  of  these 
young  ladies  held  in  her  right  hand  a  flag  inscribed  with 
the  name  of  the  State  she  represented,  and  in  her  left  a 
basket  trimmed  with  blue  ribbons  and  full  of  flowers. 


238  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Behind  each  was  a  shield  suspended  on  a  lance  stuck  in 
the  ground,  inscribed  with  the  name  of  a  State  or  Terri 
tory.  The  intervals  had  been  so  calculated  that  the 
shields,  linked  together  with  verdant  festoons,  occupied 
the  distance  from  the  triumphal  arch  to  the  church. 

"  General  Jackson,  accompanied  by  the  officers  of 
his  staff,  arrived  at  the  entrance  of  the  square,  where  he 
was  requested  to  proceed  to  the  church  by  the  walk  pre 
pared  for  him.  As  he  passed  under  the  arch  he  received 
the  crowns  of  laurel  from  the  two  children,  and  was  con 
gratulated  in  an  address  spoken  by  Miss  Kerr,  who  rep 
resented  the  State  of  Louisiana.  The  general  then 
proceeded  to  the  church,  amid  the  salutations  of  the 
young  ladies  representing  the  different  States,  who 
strewed  his  passage  with  flowers.  At  the  entrance  of 
the  church  he  was  received  by  the  Abbe  Dubourg,  who 
addressed  him  in  a  speech  suitable  to  the  occasion,  and 
conducted  him  to  a  seat  prepared  for  him  near  the  altar. 
A  Te  Deum  was  chanted  with  impressive  solemnity,  and 
soon  after  a  guard  of  honor  attended  the  general  to  his 
quarters,  and  in  the  evening  the  town,  with  its  suburbs, 
was  splendidly  illuminated." 

The  day  and  night  were  given  up  to  pleasure,  both 
by  the  soldiers  and  the  people.  The  next  day  discipline 
resumed  its  sway.  The  Tennessee  troops  were  encamped 
on  their  old  ground  above  the  city.  New  troops  kept 
coming  by  squads  and  companies,  and  the  boat  load  of 
arms  arrived  for  them.  The  general  addressed  himself 
to  the  task  of  rendering  the  country  secure  against  a 
second  surprise,  in  case  the  enemy  should  attempt  a 
landing  elsewhere.  New  works  were  ordered  in  exposed 
localities.  New  Orleans  was  saved,  but  the  Southwest 
was  still  the  country  menaced,  and  it  was  not  to  be  sup 
posed  that  the  British  fleet  and  army,  re-enforced  by  a 
thousand  new  troops,  would  retire  from  the  coast  with- 


END  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN. 


239 


out  an  attempt  to  retrieve  the  campaign.  Not  a  thought, 
not  the  faintest  presentiment  of  immediate  peace,  oc 
curred  to  any  one.  The  question  was  not  whether  the 
enemy  would  make  a  new  attempt,  but  whether  New 
Orleans  or  Mobile  would  be  its  object. 

For  the  first  three  weeks  after  the  triumphal  return 
of  the  army  to  New  Orleans  little  occurred  to  disturb 
the  public  harmony.  Martial  law  was  rigorously  main 
tained,  and  all  the  troops  were  kept  in  service.  The 
duty  at  the  lines  and  below  the  lines  was  hard  and  dis 
agreeable,  but,  whatever  murmurs  were  uttered  by  the 
troops,  the  duty  was  punctually  performed.  The  mor 
tality  at  the  hospitals  continued  to  be  very  great.  The 
business  of  the  city  was  interrupted  in  some  degree  by 
the  prevalence  of  martial  law,  and  still  more  by  the  re 
tention  in  service  of  business  men.  But  so  long  as 
there  was  no  whisper  of  peace  in  the  city,  the  restraint 
was  felt  to  be  necessary,  and  was  submitted  to  without 
audible  complaining.  During  this  interval  some  pleas 
ant  things  occurred,  which  exhibit  the  general  in  a  favor 
able  light. 

On  February  4th,  Edward  Livingston,  Mr.  Shepherd, 
and  Captain  Maunsel  White  were  sent  to  the  British 
fleet  to  arrange  for  a  further  exchange  of  prisoners,  and 
for  the  recovery  of  a  large  number  of  slaves,  who,  after 
aiding  the  English  army  on  shore,  had  gone  off  with 
them  to  their  ships.  They  were  charged  also  with  a 
less  difficult  errand.  General  Keane,  when  he  received 
his  wounds  on  the  8th  of  January,  lost  on  the  field  a 
valuable  sword,  the  gift  of  a  friend.  He  stated  the  cir 
cumstance  to  General  Jackson,  and  requested  him  to 
restore  the  sword.  It  was  an  unusual  request,  thought 
the  general,  but  he  complied  with  it,  adding  polite  wishes 
for  General  Keane's  recovery.  General  Keane  acknowl 
edged  the  restoration  of  the  sword  in  courteous  terms. 


240  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Mr.  Livingston  returned  to  New  Orleans  with  the 
news  of  peace  on  the  ipth  of  February.  The  city  was 
thrown  into  joyful  excitement,  and  the  troops  expected 
an  immediate  release  from  their  arduous  toils.  But 
they  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  The  package 
which  Admiral  Malcolm  had  received  contained  only  a 
newspaper  announcement  of  peace.  There  was  little 
doubt  of  its  truth,  but  the  statements  of  a  newspaper 
are  as  nothing  to  the  commanders  of  fleets  and  armies. 
To-check  the  rising  tide  of  feeling,  Jackson,  on  the  very 
day  of  Livingston's  return,  issued  a  proclamation,  stat 
ing  the  exact  nature  of  the  intelligence,  and  exhorting 
the  troops  to  bear  with  patience  the  toils  of  the  cam 
paign  a  little  longer.  "We  must  not,"  said  he,  "  be 
thrown  into  false  security  by  hopes  that  may  be  de 
lusive.  It  is  by  holding  out  such  that  an  artful  and  in 
sidious  enemy  too  often  seeks  to  accomplish  what  the 
utmost  exertions  of  his  strength  will  not  enable  him  to 
effect.  To  place  you  off  your  guard  and  attack  you  by 
surprise  is  the  natural  expedient  of  one  who,  having  ex 
perienced  the  superiority  of  your  arms,  still  hopes  to 
overcome  you  by  stratagem.  Though  young  in  the 
1  trade '  of  war,  it  is  not  by  such  artifices  that  he  will 
deceive  us." 

This  proclamation  seems  rather  to  have  inflamed  than 
allayed  the  general  discontent.  Two  days  after  the  re 
turn  of  Livingston  a  paragraph  appeared  in  the  Louisi 
ana  Gazette  to  the  effect  that  "  a  flag  had  just  arrived 
from  Admiral  Cochrane  to  General  Jackson,  officially 
announcing  the  conclusion  of  peace  at  Ghent  between 
the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and  virtually  re 
questing  a  suspension  of  arms."  For  this  statement 
there  was  not  the  least  foundation  in  truth,  and  its  ef 
fect  at  such  a  crisis  was  to  inflame  the  prevailing  ex 
citement.  Upon  reading  the  paragraph  Jackson  caused 


END   OF   THE   CAMPAIGN.  241 

to  be  prepared  an  official  contradiction,  which  he  sent 
by  an  aide-de-camp  to  the  offending  editor,  with  a  written 
order  requiring  its  insertion  in  the  next  issue  of  the 
paper. 

This  was  regarded  by  the  rebellious  spirits  as  a  new 
provocation. 

In  this  posture  of  affairs  some  of  the  French  troops 
hit  upon  an  expedient  to  escape  the  domination  of  the 
general.  They  claimed  the  protection  of  the  French 
consul,  M.  Toussard.  The  consul,  nothing  loath,  hoisted 
the  French  flag  over  the  consulate,  and  dispensed  certifi 
cates  of  French  citizenship  to  all  applicants.  Naturalized 
Frenchmen  availed  themselves  of  the  same  artifice,  and 
for  a  few  days  Toussard  had  his  hands  full  of  pleasant 
and  profitable  occupation.  Jackson  met  this  new  diffi 
culty  by  ordering  the  consul  and  all  Frenchmen  who 
were  not  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  leave  New  Or 
leans  within  three  days,  and  not  to  return  to  within  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  of  the  city  until  the  news  of 
the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace  was  officially 
published!  The  register  of  votes  of  the  last  election 
was  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  who 
were  citizens  and  who  were  not.  Every  man  who  had 
voted  was  claimed  by  the  general  as  his  "  fellow-citizen 
and  soldier,"  and  compelled  to  do  duty  as  such. 

This  bold  stroke  of  authority  aroused  much  indigna 
tion  among  the  anti-martial  law  party,  which  on  the  3d 
of  March  found  voice  in  the  public  press.  A  long  arti 
cle  appeared  anonymously  in  one  of  the  newspapers, 
boldly  but  temperately  and  respectfully  calling  in  ques 
tion  General  Jackson's  recent  conduct,  and  especially 
the  banishment  of  the  French  from  the  city.  Here 
was  open  defiance.  Jackson  accepted  the  issue  with  a 
promptness  all  his  own.  He  sent  an  order  to  the  editor 
of  the  Louisiana  Courier,  in  which  the  article  appeared, 


242  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

commanding  his  immediate  presence  at  headquarters. 
The  name  of  the  author  of  the  communication  was  de 
manded  and  given.  It  was  Mr.  Louaillier,  a  member  of 
the  Legislature,  a  gentleman  who  had  distinguished  him 
self  by  his  zeal  in  the  public  cause,  and  who  had  been 
particularly  prominent  in  promoting  subscriptions  for 
the  relief  of  the  ill-clad  soldiers.  Upon  his  surrendering 
the  name  the  editor  was  dismissed. 

At  noon  on  Sunday,  the  5th  of  March,  two  days  after 
the  publication  of  the  article,  Mr.  Louaillier  was  walk 
ing  along  the  levee,  opposite  one  of  the  most  frequented 
coffee-houses  in  the  city,  when  a  Captain  Amelung,  com 
manding  a  file  of  soldiers,  tapped  him  on  the  shoulder 
and  informed  him  that  he  was  a  prisoner.  Louaillier, 
astonished  and  indignant,  called  the  bystanders  to  wit 
ness  that  he  was  conveyed  away  against  his  will  by 
armed  men,  A  lawyer,  P.  L.  Morel  by  name,  who  wit 
nessed  the  arrest  from  the  steps  of  the  coffee-house,  ran 
to  the  spot,  and  was  forthwith  engaged  by  Louaillier  to 
act  as  his  legal  adviser  in  this  extremity.  Louaillier  was 
placed  in  confinement.  Morel  hastened  to  the  residence 
of  Judge  Dominick  A.  Hall,  of  the  District  Court  of  the 
United  States,  to  whom  he  presented,  in  his  client's 
name,  a  petition  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  judge 
granted  the  petition,  and  the  writ  was  immediately 
served  upon  the  general.  Jackson  instantly  sent  a  file 
of  troops  to  arrest  the  judge,  and,  before  night,  Judge 
Hall  and  Mr.  Louaillier  were  prisoners  in  the  same 
apartment  of  the  barracks. 

So  far  from  obeying  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  Gen 
eral  Jackson  seized  the  writ  from  the  officer  who  served 
it  and  retained  it  in  his  own  possession,  giving  to  the 
officer  a  certified  copy  of  the  same.  Louaillier  was  at 
once  placed  on  his  trial  before  a  court-martial  upon 
the  following  charges,  all  based  upon  the  article  in  the 


END  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN. 


243 


Louisiana  Courier:  Exciting  to  mutiny;  general  mis 
conduct ;.  being  a  spy;  illegal  and  improper  conduct; 
disobedience  to  orders;  writing  a  willful  and  corrupt 
libel  against  the  general;  unsoldierly  conduct;  viola 
tion  of  a  general  order. 

Nor  were  these  the  only  arrests.  A  Mr.  Hollander, 
partner  in  business  of  our  friend  Nolte,  expressed  him 
self  somewhat  freely  in  conversation  respecting  Jack 
son's  proceedings,  and  suddenly  found  himself  a  pris 
oner  in  consequence. 

On  Monday,  March  6th,  the  day  after  the  arrest  of 
Louaillier  and  Judge  Hall,  the  courier  arrived  at  New 
Orleans  who  had  been  dispatched  from  Washington 
nineteen  days  before  to  bear  to  General  Jackson  the 
news  of  peace.  He  had  traveled  fast  by  night  and  day, 
and  most  eagerly  had  his  coming  been  looked  for.  His 
packet  was  opened  at  headquarters  and  found  to  con 
tain  no  dispatches  announcing  the  conclusion  of  peace, 
but  an  old  letter,  of  no  importance  then,  which  had  been 
written  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  General  Jackson 
some  months  before.  It  appeared  that  in  the  hurry  of 
his  departure  from  Washington  the  courier  had  taken  the 
wrong  packet.  The  blank  astonishment  of  the  general, 
of  his  aides,  and  of  the  courier,  can  be  imagined.  The 
only  proof  the  unlucky  messenger  could  furnish  of  the 
genuineness  of  his  mission  and  the  truth  of  his  intelli 
gence  was  an  order  from  the  Postmaster-General  requir 
ing  his  deputies  on  the  route  to  afford  the  courier  bear 
ing  the  news  of  peace  all  the  facilities  in  their  power  for 
the  rapid  performance  of  his  journey.  In  ordinary  cir 
cumstances  this  would  have  sufficed.  But  the  events  of 
yesterday  had  rendered  the  circumstances  extraordinary. 
The  general  resolved  still  to  hold  the  reins  of  military 
power  firmly  in  his  hands.  New  Orleans  was  still  a  camp, 
and  Judge  Hall  a  soldier. 


244  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Jackson  wrote,  however,  to  General  Lambert  on  the 
same  day,  stating  precisely  what  had  occurred,  and  in 
closing  a  copy  of  the  Postmaster-General's  order,  "  that 
you  may  determine,"  said  the  general,  "  whether  these 
occurrences  will  not  justify  you  in  agreeing,  by  a  cessa 
tion  of  all  hostilities,  to  anticipate  a  happy  return  of 
peace  between  our  two  nations,  which  the  first  direct  in 
telligence  must  bring  to  us  in  an  official  form." 

The  week  had  nearly  passed  away.  Judge  Hall  re 
mained  in  confinement  at  the  barracks. '  General  Jackson 
resolved  on  Saturday,  the  nth  of  March,  to  send  the  judge 
out  of  the  city  and  set  him  at  liberty,  which  was  done. 

Brief  was  the  exile  of  the  banished  judge.  The  very 
next  day — Monday,  March  i3th — arrived  from  Washing 
ton  a  courier  with  a  dispatch  from  the  Government  an 
nouncing  the  ratification  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  and 
inclosing  a  copy  of  the  treaty  and  of  the  ratification. 
Before  that  day  closed  the  joyful  news  was  forwarded 
to  the  British  general,  hostilities  were  publicly  declared 
to  be  at  an  end,  martial  law  was  abrogated,  and  com 
merce  released.  "And  in  order,"  concluded  the  gen 
eral's  proclamation,  "that  the  general  joy  attending  this 
event  may  extend  to  all  manner  of  persons,  the  com 
manding  general  proclaims  and  orders  a  pardon  for  all 
military  offenses  heretofore  committed  in  this  district, 
and  orders  that  all  persons  in  confinement  under  such 
charges  be  immediately  discharged." 

Louaillier  was  a  prisoner  no  longer.  Judge  Hall  re 
turned  to  his  home.  On  the  day  following,  the  impatient 
militia  and  volunteers  of  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Missis 
sippi,  and  Louisiana  were  dismissed  with  a  glorious 
burst  of  grateful  praise. 

I  shall  not  dwell  upon  the  subsequent  proceedings  of 
Judge  Hall.  March  22d,  in  the  United  States  District 
Court,  on  motion  of  Attorney  John  Dick,  it  was  ruled 


END  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN.  245 

and  ordered  by  the  court  that  "  the  said  Major-General 
Andrew  Jackson  show  cause  on  Friday  next,  the  24th  of 
March,  instant,  at  ten  o'clock  A.  M.,  why  an  attachment 
should  not  be  awarded  against  him  for  contempt  of  this 
court,  in  having  disrespectfully  wrested  from  the  clerk 
aforesaid  an  original  order  of  the  honorable  the  judge 
of  this  court  for  the  issuing  of  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in 
the  case  of  a  certain  Louis  Louaillier,  then  imprisoned 
by  the  said  Major-General  Andrew  Jackson,  and  fof  de 
taining  the  same.  Also,  for  disregarding  the  said  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  when  issued  and  served,  in  having  impris 
oned  the  honorable  the  judge  of  this  court,  and  for 
other  contempts,  as  stated  by  the  witnesses." 

General  Jackson  appeared  in  court  attended  by  a 
concourse  of  excited  people.  He  wore  the  dress  of  a 
private  citizen.  "  Undiscovered  amid  the  crowd,"  Ma 
jor  Eaton  relates,  "  he  had  nearly  reached  the  bar,  when, 
being  perceived,  the  room  instantly  rang  with  the  shouts 
of  a  thousand  voices.  Raising  himself  on  a  bench  and 
moving  his  hand  to  procure  silence,  a  pause  ensued.  He 
then  addressed  himself  to  the  crowd,  told  them  of  the 
duty  due  to  the  public  authorities,  for  that  any  impro 
priety  of  theirs  would  be  imputed  to  him,  and  urged,  if 
they  had  any  regard  for  him,  that  they  would  on  the 
present  occasion  forbear  those  feelings  and  expressions 
of  opinion.  Silence  being  restored,  the  judge  rose  from 
his  seat,  and  remarking  that  it  was  impossible  and  un 
safe  to  transact  business  at  such  a  moment  and  under 
such  threatening  circumstances,  directed  the  marshal  to 
adjourn  the  court.  The  general  immediately  interfered, 
and  requested  that  it  might  not  be  done.  *  There  is  no 
danger  here;  there  shall  be  none.  The  same  arm  that 
protected  from  outrage  this  city  against  the  invaders  of 
the  country,  will  shield  and  protect  this  court  or  perish 
in  the  effort.' 
17 


246  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"Tranquillity  was  restored,  and  the  court  proceeded 
to  business.  The  district  attorney  had  prepared  and 
now  presented  a  file  of  nineteen  questions  to  be  answered 
by  the  prisoner.  *  Did  you  not  arrest  Louaillier  ? '  *  Did 
you  not  arrest  the  judge  of  this  court  ? '  '  Did  you  not 
seize  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ? '  4  Did  you  not  say  a 
variety  of  disrespectful  things  of  the  judge?'  These 
interrogatories  the  general  utterly  refused  to  answer, 
to  listen  to,  or  to  receive.  He  told  the  court  that  in 
a  paper  previously  presented  by  his  counsel  he  had  ex 
plained  fully  the  reasons  that  had  influenced  his  con 
duct.  That  paper  had  been  rejected  without  a  hearing. 
He  could  add  nothing  to  that  paper.  '  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,'  said  he,  '  I  appear  before  you  to  receive  the 
sentence  of  the  court,  having  nothing  further  in  my  de 
fense  to  offer.' " 

Whereupon  Judge  Hall  pronounced  the  judgment  of 
the  court.  It  is  recorded  in  the  words  following:  "  On 
this  day  appeared  in  person  Major-General  Andrew 
Jackson,  and,  being  duly  informed  by  the  court  that  an 
attachment  had  issued  against  him  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  him  into  court,  and  the  district  attorney  hav 
ing  filed  interrogatories,  the  court  informed  General 
Jackson  that  they  would  be  tendered  to  him  for  the  pur 
pose  of  answering  thereto.  The  said  General  Jackson 
refused  to  receive  them,  or  to  make  any  answer  to  the 
said  interrogatories.  Whereupon  the  court  proceeded  to 
pronounce  judgment;  which  was,  'That  Major-General 
Andrew  Jackson  do  pay  a  fine  of  one  thousand  dollars 
to  the  United  States.'  " 

The  general  was  borne  from  the  courtroom  in  tri 
umph;  or  as  Major  Eaton  has  it,  "he  was  seized  and 
forcibly  hurried  from  the  hall  to  the  streets,  amid  the  re 
iterated  cries  of  '  Huzza  for  Jackson  ! '  from  the  immense 
concourse  that  surrounded  him.  They  presently  met  a 


END  OF   THE  CAMPAIGN.  247 

carriage  in  which  a  lady  was  riding,  when,  politely  tak 
ing  her  from  it,  the  general  was  made,  spite  of  entreaty, 
to  occupy  her  place.  The  horses  being  removed,  the  car 
riage  was  drawn  on  and  halted  at  the  coffee-house,  into 
which  he  was  carried,  and  thither  the  crowd  followed, 
huzzaing  for  Jackson  and  menacing  violently  the  judge. 
Having  prevailed  on  them  to  hear  him,  he  addressed 
them  with  great  feeling  and  earnestness;  implored  them 
to  run  into  no  excesses ;  that  if  they  had  the  least  grati 
tude  for  his  services,  or  regard  for  him  personally,  they 
could  evince  it  in  no  way  so  satisfactorily  as  by  assent 
ing,  as  he  most  freely  did,  to  the  decision  which  had  just 
been  pronounced  against  him." 

Upon  reaching  his  quarters  he  sent  back  an  aide-de 
camp  to  the  courtroom  with  a  check  on  one  of  the  city 
banks  for  a  thousand  dollars.  And  thus  the  offended 
majesty  of  the  law  was  supposed  to  be  avenged. 

It  is  not  to  be  inferred,  from  the  conduct  of  the 
people  in  the  courtroom,  that  the  course  of  General 
Jackson  in  maintaining  martial  law  so  long  after  the 
conclusion  of  peace  was  morally  certain,  was  generally 
approved  by  the  people  of  New  Orleans.  It  was  not. 
It  was  approved  by  many,  forgiven  by  most,  resented  by 
a  few.  An  effort  was  made  to  raise  the  amount  of  the 
general's  fine  by  a  public  subscription,  to  which  no  one 
was  allowed  to  contribute  more  than  one  dollar.  But 
Nolte  tells  us  (how  truly  I  know  not)  that,  after  raising 
with  difficulty  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars,  the  scheme 
was  quietly  given  up.  He  adds  that  the  courtroom  on 
the  day  of  the  general's  appearance  was  occupied  chiefly 
by  the  special  partisans  of  the  general. 

On  the  6th  of  April  General  Jackson  and  his  family 
left  New  Orleans  on  their  return  to  Tennessee.  On  ap 
proaching  Nashville  the  general  was  met  by  a  procession 
of  troops,  students,  and  citizens,  who  deputed  one  of 


248  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

their  number  to  welcome  him  in  an  address.  At  Nash 
ville  a  vast  concourse  was  assembled,  among  whom  were 
many  of  the  troops  who  had  served  under  him  at  New 
Orleans.  The  greatest  enthusiasm  prevailed.  Within 
the  courthouse  Mr.  Felix  Grundy  received  the  general 
with  an  eloquent  speech,  recounting  in  glowing  periods 
the  leading  events  of  the  last  campaigns.  The  students 
of  Cumberland  College  also  addressed  the  general.  The 
replies  of  General  Jackson  to  these  various  addresses 
were  short,  simple,  and  sufficient. 

And  so  we  dismiss  the  hero  home  to  his  beloved 
Hermitage,  there  to  recruit  his  impaired  energies  by  a 
brief  period  of  repose.  He  had  been  absent  for  the 
space  of  twenty-one  months,  with  the  exception  of  three 
weeks  between  the  end  of  the  Creek  War  and  the  begin 
ning  of  the  campaign  of  New  Orleans. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

COMMANDER    OF    THE    SOUTHERN    DEPARTMENT. 

FOUR  months'  rest  at  the  Hermitage.  In  the  cool 
days  of  October  we  find  the  general  on  horseback  once 
more,  riding  slowly  through  Tennessee,  across  Virginia, 
toward  the  city  of  Washington — the  whole  journey  a  tri 
umphal  progress.  At  Lynchburg,  in  Virginia,  the  peo 
ple  turned  out  en  masse  to  greet  the  conqueror.  A  num 
ber  of  gentlemen  rode  out  of  town  to  meet  him,  one  of 
whom  saluted  the  general  with  an  address,  to  which  he 
briefly  replied.  Escorted  into  the  town  on  the  yth  of 
November,  he  was  received  by  a  prodigious  assemblage 
of  citizens  and  all  the  militia  companies  of  the  vicinity, 
who  welcomed  him  with  an  enthusiasm  that  can  be  im 
agined.  In  the  afternoon  a  grand  banquet,  attended  by 
three  hundred  persons,  was  served  in  honor  of  the  gen 
eral.  Among  the  distinguished  guests  was  Thomas  Jef 
ferson,  then  seventy-two  years  of  age,  the  most  revered 
of  American  citizens  then  living.  His  residence  was 
only  a  long  day's  ride  from  Lynchburg,  and  he  had 
come  to  join  in  the  festivities  of  this  occasion.  The  toast 
offered  by  the  ex-President  at  the  banquet  at  Lynchburg 
has  been  variously  reported,  but  in  the  newspapers  of  the 
day  it  is  uniformly  given  in  these  words:  "  Honor  and 
gratitude  to  those  who  have  filled  the  measure  of  their 
country's  honor."  General  Jackson  volunteered  a  toast 
which  was  at  once  graceful  and  significant :  "  James 
Monroe,  late  Secretary  of  War  " — graceful,  because  Mr. 


250  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Monroe  was  a  Virginian,  a  friend  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and 
had  nobly  co-operated  with  himself  in  the  defense  of 
New  Orleans;  significant,  because  Mr.  Monroe  was  a 
very  prominent  candidate  for  the  presidency,  and  the 
election  was  drawing  near. 

To  horse  again  the  next  morning.  Nine  days'  riding 
brought  the  general  to  Washington,  which  he  reached 
in  the  evening  of  November  lyth.  He  called  the  next 
morning  upon  the  President  and  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet,  by  whom  he  was  welcomed  to  the  capital  with 
every  mark  of  cordiality  and  respect.  His  stay  at  Wash 
ington,  I  need  not  say,  was  an  almost  ceaseless  round  of 
festivity.  A  great  public  dinner  was  given  him,  which 
was  attended  by  all  that  Washington  could  boast  of  the 
eminent  and  the  eloquent.  He  was  lionized  severely  at 
private  entertainments,  where  the  stateliness  of  his  bear 
ing  and  the  suavity  of  his  manners  pleased  the  gentle 
men  and  won  the  ladies.  And  this  was  to  be  one  of  the 
conditions  of  his  lot  thenceforward  to  the  end  of  his  life. 
He  was  the  darling  of  the  nation.  Nothing  had  yet  oc 
curred  to  dim  the  luster  of  his  fame.  His  giant  popu 
larity  was  in  the  flush  of  its  youth.  He  could  go  no 
where  without  incurring  an  ovation,  and  every  movement 
of  his  was  affectionately  chronicled  in  the  newspapers. 

General  Jackson  was  to  remain  in  the  army  !  Upon 
the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Great  Britain  the  army  was 
reduced  to  ten  thousand  men,  commanded  by  two  major- 
generals,  one  of  whom  was  to  reside  at  the  North  and 
command  the  troops  stationed  there,  and  the  other  to 
bear  military  sway  at  the  South.  The  generals  selected 
for  these  commands  were  General  Jacob  Brown  for  the 
Northern  division,  and  General  Andrew  Jackson  for  the 
Southern,  both  of  whom  had  entered  the  service  at  the 
beginning  of  the  late  war  as  generals  of  militia.  Gen 
eral  Jackson's  visit  to  Washington  on  this  occasion  was 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  251 

in  obedience  to  an  order,  couched  in  the  language  of  an 
invitation,  received  from  the  Secretary  of  War  soon  after 
his  return  from  New  Orleans ;  the  object  of  his  visit  be 
ing  to  arrange  the  posts  and  stations  of  the  army.  The 
feeling  was  general  at  the  time  that  the  disasters  of  the 
War  of  1812  were  chiefly  due  to  the  defenseless  and  un 
prepared  condition  of  the  country,  and  that  it  was  the 
first  duty  of  the  Government,  on  the  return  of  peace,  to 
see  to  it  that  the  assailable  points  were  fortified.  "  Let 
us  never  be  caught  napping  again  " ;  "  In  time  of  peace 
prepare  for  war,"  were  popular  sayings  then.  On  these 
and  all  other  subjects  connected  with  the  defense  of  the 
country  the  advice  of  General  Jackson  was  asked  and 
given.  His  own  duty,  it  was  evident,  was  first  of  all  to 
pacify,  and  if  possible  satisfy,  the  restless  and  sorrowful 
Indians  in  the  Southwest.  The  vanquished  tribe,  it  was 
agreed,  should  be  dealt  with  forbearingly  and  liberally. 
The  general  undertook  to  go  in  person  into  the  Indian 
country  and  remove  from  their  minds  all  discontent. 
He  did  so. 

It  is  not  possible  to  overstate  his  popularity  in  his 
own  State.  He  was  its  pride,  boast,  and  glory.  Tennes- 
seeans  felt  a  personal  interest  in  his  honor  and  success. 
His  old  enemies  either  sought  reconciliation  with  him  or 
kept  their  enmity  to  themselves.  His  rank  in  the  army, 
too,  gave  him  unequaled  social  eminence;  and,  to  add  to 
the  other  felicities  of  his  lot,  his  fortune  now  rapidly  in 
creased,  as  the  entire  income  of  his  estate  could  be  added 
to  his  capital,  the  pay  of  a  major-general  being  suffi 
cient  for  the  support  of  his  family.  He  was  forty-nine 
years  old  in  1816.  He  had  riches,  rank,  power,  renown, 
and  all  in  full  measure. 

But  in  1817  there  was  trouble  again  among  the  In 
dians — the  Indians  of  Florida,  the  allies  of  Great  Britain 
during  the  War  of  1812,  commonly  known  by  the  name 


252  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

of  Seminoles.  Composed  in  part  of  fugitive  Creeks,  who 
scouted  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson,  they  had  indulged 
the  expectation  that  on  the  conclusion  of  peace  they 
would  be  restored  by  their  powerful  ally  to  the  lands 
wrested  from  the  Creeks  by  Jackson's  conquering  army 
in  1814.  This  poor  remnant  of  tribes  once  so  numerous 
and  powerful  had  not  a  thought,  at  first,  of  attempting 
to  regain  the  lost  lands  by  force  of  arms.  The  best  testi 
mony  now  procurable  confirms  their  own  solemnly  reit 
erated  assertions  that  they  long  desired  and  endeavored 
to  live  in  peace  with  the  white  settlers  of  Georgia.  All 
their  "  talks,"  petitions,  remonstrances,  letters,  of  which 
a  large  number  are  still  accessible,  breathe  only  the  wish 
for  peace  and  fair  dealing.  The  Seminoles  were  drawn 
'  at  last  into  a  collision  with  the  United  States  by  a  chain 
of  circumstances  with  which  they  had  little  to  do,  and 
the  responsibility  of  which  belongs  not  to  them. 

Fourteen  miles  east  of  Fort  Scott,  in  Georgia,  but 
near  the  Florida  line,  on  lands  claimed  by  the  United 
States  under  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson,  was  a  Seminole 
village  called  by  the  settlers  Fowltown.  The  chief  of 
this  village  of  forty-five  warriors  was  supposed  to  be, 
and  was,  peculiarly  embittered  against  the  whites.  The 
red  war-pole  had  been  erected  by  his  warriors,  around 
which  they  danced  the  war-dance.  The  Fowltown  chief 
was  resolved  to  hold  his  lands,  and  resist  by  force  any 
further  encroachments,  and  had  said  as  much  to  Colonel 
Twiggs,  the  commandant  of  Fort  Scott.  "  I  warn  you," 
he  said  to  Colonel  Twiggs,  early  in  November,  "not  to 
cross,  nor  cut  a  stick  of  wood,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Flint.  That  land  is  mine.  I  am  directed  by  the  powers 
above  and  the  powers  below  to  protect  and  defend  it.  I 
shall  do  so."  A  few  days  after,  General  Gaines  arrived 
at  Fort  Scott  with  a  re-enforcement  of  regular  troops, 
when  the  talk  of  the  Fowltown  chief  was  reported  to 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  253 

him.  General  Gaines,"  to  ascertain,"  as  he  said,  "  whether 
his  hostile  temper  had  abated,"  had  previously  sent  a 
runner  to  the  chief  to  request  him  to  come  to  him  at 
Fort  Scott.  The  chief  replied  :  "  I  have  already  said  to 
the  officer  commanding  at  the  fort  all  I  have  to  say.  I 
will  not  go." 

General  Gaines  immediately  detached  a  force  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  under  command  of  Colonel  Twiggs, 
with  orders  "  to  bring  to  me  the  chief  and  his  warriors, 
and,  in  the  event  of  resistance,  to  treat  them  as  enemies." 

On  the  morning  of  November  2ist,  before  the  dawn 
of  day,  the  detachment  reached  Fowltown.  The  war 
riors  fired  upon  the  troops  without  waiting  to  learn  their 
errand.  It  could  not  be  expected  to  occur  to  the  be 
nighted  Seminole  mind  that  a  large  body  of  troops, 
arriving  near  their  town  in  the  darkness  of  a  November 
morning,  could  have  any  but  a  hostile  errand.  The  fire 
of  the  Indians,  which  was  wholly  without  effect,  was 
"  briskly  returned  "  by  the  troops,  when  the  Indians  took 
to  flight,  with  the  loss  of  two  men  and  one  woman  killed, 
besides  several  wounded.  Colonel  Twiggs  entered  and 
searched  the  abandoned  town.  Among  other  articles 
found  in  the  house  of  the  chief  were  a  scarlet  coat  of  the 
British  uniform,  a  pair  of  golden  epaulets,  and  a  certifi 
cate  in  the  handwriting  of  Colonel  Nichols,  declaring 
that  the  Fowltown  chief  had  ever  been  a  true  and  faith 
ful  friend  of  the  British.  Colonel  Twiggs  took  post  near 
the  town,  erected  a  temporary  stockade,  and  waited  for 
further  orders.  Shortly  afterward  the  town  was  burned 
by  General  Gaines  himself. 

The  die  was  cast.  The  revenge  of  the  Seminoles  for 
this  seizure  of  Fowltown  and  the  slaughter  of  its  war 
riors  and  the  woman  was  swift,  bloody,  and  atrocious. 

Nine  days  after,  a  large  open  boat,  containing  forty 
United  States  troops,  seven  soldiers'  wives,  and  four  lit- 


254  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

tie  children,  under  command  of  Lieutenant  Scott,  of  the 
Seventh  Infantry,  was  warping  slowly  up  the  Appalachi- 
cola  River.  They  were  within  one  mile  of  reaching  the 
junction  of  the  Chattahoochee  and  Flint,  and  not  many 
miles  from  Fort  Scott.  To  avoid  the  swift  current,  the 
soldiers  kept  the  boat  close  to  the  shore.  They  were 
passing  a  swamp  densely  covered  with  trees  and  cane. 
Suddenly,  at  a  moment  when  not  a  soul  on  board  sus 
pected  danger,  for  not  an  Indian  nor  trace  of  an  Indian 
had  been  seen,  a  heavy  volley  of  musketry  from  the 
thickets  within  a  few  yards  of  the  boat  was  fired  full 
into  the  closely  compacted  party.  Lieutenant  Scott  and 
nearly  every  man  in  the  boat  were  killed  or  badly 
wounded  at  the  first  fire.  Other  volleys  succeeded.  The 
Indians  soon  rose  from  their  ambush  and  rushed  upon 
the  boat  with  a  fearful  yell.  Men,  women,  and  children 
were  involved  in  one  horrible  massacre,  or  spared  for 
more  horrible  torture.  The  children  were  taken  by  the 
heels  and  their  brains  dashed  out  against  the  sides  of  the 
boat.  The  men  and  women  were  scalped,  all  but  one 
woman,  who  was  not  wounded  by  the  previous  fire. 
Four  men  escaped  by  leaping  overboard  and  swimming 
to  the  opposite  shore,  of  whom  two  only  reached  Fort 
Scott  uninjured.  Laden  with  plunder,  the  savages  re-en 
tered  the  wilderness,  taking  with  them  the  woman  whom 
they  had  spared.  In  twenty  minutes  after  the  first 
volley  was  fired  into  the  boat,  every  creature  in  it  but 
five  was  killed  and  scalped,  or  bound  and  carried  off. 

The  Seminoles  had  tasted  blood,  and  thirsted  like 
tigers  for  more.  Still  haunting  the  banks  of  the  river, 
they  attacked,  a  few  days  later,  a  convoy  of  ascending 
boats,  under  Major  Muhlenberg,  killing  two  soldiers  and 
wounding  thirteen.  For  four  or  five  days  and  nights  the 
boats  lay  in  the  middle  of  the  stream,  immovable,  for 
not  a  man  could  show  himself  for  an  instant  above  the 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  255 

bulwarks  without  being  fired  upon.  With  difficulty,  and 
after  great  suffering  on  the  part  of  the  sick  and  wounded, 
the  fleet  was  rescued  from  its  horrible  situation  by  a 
party  from  Fort  Scott. 

Before  the  year  closed  Fort  Scott  itself  was  threat 
ened.  A  desultory  and  ineffectual  fire  was  kept  up  upon 
it  for  several  days.  The  garrison,  being  short  of  provis 
ions,  and  forming  a  most  exaggerated  estimate  of  the 
numbers  of  the  enemy,  feared  to  be  obliged  to  abandon 
the  post.  This  was  war  indeed.  The  Government  at 
Washington  was  promptly  informed  of  these  terrible 
events  by  General  Gaines,  who  advised  the  most  vigor 
ous  measures  of  retaliation.  It  chanced  that,  just  before 
these  dispatches  reached  Washington,  the  Secretary  of 
War,  Mr.  John  C.  Calhoun,  not  anticipating  serious 
trouble  from  the  Indians,  had  sent  orders  to  General 
Gaines  to  proceed  to  Amelia  Island.  General  Gaines 
was  accordingly  compelled  to  leave  the  frontiers  at  a 
time  when  his  presence  there  was  most  needed.  The 
Government,  fearing  the  effect  at  such  a  moment  of  the 
absence  of  a  general  officer  from  the  scene  of  hostilities, 
resolved  upon  ordering  General  Jackson  to  take  com 
mand  in  person  of  the  troops  upon  the  frontiers  of 
Georgia. 

On  the  22d  of  January,  General  Jackson  and  his 
"  guard  "  left  Nashville  amid  the  cheers  of  the  entire 
population.  The  distance  from  Nashville  to  Fort  Scott 
is  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  In  the  even 
ing  of  March  gth,  forty-six  days  after  leaving  Nashville, 
he  reached  Fort  Scott  with  eleven  hundred  hungry  men. 
No  tidings  yet  of  the  Tennessee  troops  under  Colonel 
Hayne !  There  was  no  time  to  spend,  however,  in  wait 
ing  or  surmising.  The  general  found  himself  at  Fort 
Scott  in  command  of  two  thousand  men,  and  his  whole 
stock  of  provisions  one  quart  of  corn  and  three  rations 


256  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

of  meat  per  man.  There  was  no  supply  in  his  rear,  for 
he  had  swept  the  country  on  his  line  of  march  of  every 
bushel  of  corn  and  every  animal  fit  for  food.  He  had 
his  choice  of  two  courses  only :  to  remain  at  Fort  Scott 
and  starve,  or  to  go  forward  and  find  provisions.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  say  which  of  these  alternatives  Andrew 
Jackson  selected.  "  Accordingly,"  he  wrote,  "  having 
been  advised  by  Colonel  Gibson,  quartermaster-general, 
that  he  would  sail  from  New  Orleans  on  the  i2th  of  Feb 
ruary  with  supplies,  and  being  also  advised  that  two 
sloops  with  provisions  were  in  the  bay,  and  an  officer 
had  been  dispatched  from  Fort  Scott  in  a  large  keel-boat 
to  bring  up  a  part  of  their  loading,  and  deeming  that 
the  preservation  of  these  supplies  would  be  to  preserve 
the  army,  and  enable  me  to  prosecute  the  campaign,  I 
assumed  the  command  on  the  morning  of  the  loth, 
ordered  the  live  stock  to  be  slaughtered  and  issued  to 
the  troops,  with  one  quart  of  corn  to  each  man,  and  the 
line  of  march  to  be  taken  up  at  twelve  meridian." 

It  was  necessary  to  cross  the  swollen  river,  an  oper 
ation  which  consumed  all  the  afternoon,  all  the  dark 
night  succeeding,  and  a  part  of  the  next  morning.  Five 
days'  march  along  the  banks  of  the  Appalachicola — past 
the  scene  of  the  massacre  of  Lieutenant  Scott — brought 
the  army  to  the  site  of  the  old  Negro  Fort  on  Prospect 
Bluff.  On  the  way,  however,  the  army,  to  its  great  joy, 
met  the  ascending  boat-load  of  flour,  when  the  men  had 
their  first  full  meal  since  leaving  Fort  Early,  three 
weeks  before.  Upon  the  site  of  the  Negro  Fort,  General 
Jackson  ordered  his  aide,  Lieutenant  Gadsden,  of  the  en 
gineers,  to  construct  a  fortification,  which  was  promptly 
done,  and  named  by  the  general  Fort  Gadsden,  in  honor, 
as  he  said,  of  the  "  talents  and  indefatigable  zeal  "  of  the 
builder.  No  news  yet  of  the  great  flotilla  of  provisions 
from  New  Orleans.  "  Consequently,"  wrote  the  general, 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  257 

"  I  put  the  troops  on  half  rations,  and  pushed  the  com 
pletion  of  the  fort  for  the  protection  of  the  provisions 
in  the  event  of  their  arrival,  intending  to  march  forth 
with  to  the  heart  of  the  enemy  and  endeavor  to  subsist 
upon  him.  In  the  meantime  I  dispatched  Major  Fan 
ning  of  the  corps,  of  artillery,  to  take  another  look  into 
the  bay,  whose  return  on  the  morning  of  the  23d  brought 
the  information  that  Colonel  Gibson,  with  one  gunboat 
and  three  transports  and  others  in  sight,  were  in  the  bay. 
On  the  same  night  I  received  other  information  that  no 
more  had  arrived.  I  am  therefore  apprehensive  that 
some  of  the  smaller  vessels  have  been  lost,  as  one  gun 
boat  went  to  pieces,  and  another,  when  last  spoken,  had 
one  foot  of  water  in  her." 

The  Tennessee  volunteers  did  not  arrive,  but  had 
been  heard  from.  "  The  idea  of  starvation,"  wrote  Gen 
eral  Jackson,  "  has  stalked  abroad.  A  panic  appears  to 
have  spread  itself  everywhere."  Colonel  Hayne  had 
heard  that  the  garrison  of  Fort  Scott  were  starving,  and 
had  passed  into  Georgia  for  supplies,  despite  the  willing 
ness  of  the  men  "  to  risk  the  worst  of  consequences  on 
what  they  had  to  join  me."  General  Gaines,  however, 
joined  the  army  at  Fort  Gadsden,  though  in  sorry  plight. 
"  In  his  passage  down  the  Flint,"  explains  Jackson,  "  he 
was  shipwrecked,  by  which  he  lost  his  assistant  adjutant- 
general,  Major  C.  Wright,  and  two  soldiers  drowned. 
The  general  reached  me  six  days  after,  nearly  exhausted 
by  hunger  and  cold,  having  lost  his  baggage  and  cloth 
ing,  and  being  compelled  to  wander  in  the  woods  four 
days  and  a  half  without  anything  to  subsist  on,  or  any 
clothing  except  a  pair  of  pantaloons.  I  am  happy  to 
have  it  in  my  power  to  say  that  he  is  now  with  me,  at 
the  head  of  his  brigade,  in  good  health." 

Nine  days  passed,  and  still  the  general  was  at  Fort 
Gadsden  waiting  for  the  great  flotilla.  It  occurred  to 


258  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

him  that  possibly  the  Governor  of  Pensacola  might  have 
opposed  its  ascent  of  the  river  or  molested  it  in  the  bay. 
He  wrote  a  very  polite  but  very  plain  letter  to  the  Gov 
ernor  on  the  25th  of  March.  "I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly 
understood,"  he  observed,  "that  any  attempt  to  inter 
rupt  the  passage  of  transports  can  not  be  viewed  in  any 
other  light  than  as  a  hostile  act  on  your  part.  I  will  not 
permit  myself  for  a  moment  to  believe  that  you  would 
commit  an  act  so  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the  King 
your  master.  His  Catholic  Majesty,  as  well  as  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States,  is  alike  interested  in 
chastising  a  savage  foe  who  have  too  long  warred  with 
impunity  against  his  subjects  as  well  as  the  citizens  of 
this  republic,  and  I  feel  persuaded  that  every  aid  which 
you  can  give  to  promote  this  object  will  be  cheerfully 
tendered." 

The  Governor  in  due  time  replied  that  he  would  per 
mit  the  transports  to  pass  this  time,  on  condition  of  their 
paying  the  usual  duties,  but  never  again.  "  If  extraordi 
nary  circumstances,"  he  concluded,  "  should  require  any 
further  temporary  concessions,  not  explained  in  the 
treaty,  I  request  your  Excellency  to  have  the  goodness 
to  apply  in  future,  for  the  obtaining  of  them,  to  the 
proper  authority,  as  I,  for  my  part,  possess  no  power 
whatever  in  relation  thereto." 

Before  the  day  closed  on  which  the  general  wrote  his 
plain  letter  to  the  Governor  of  Pensacola  he  had  the 
pleasure  of  hearing  that  the  provision  flotilla  had  arrived, 
and  of  welcoming  to  Fort  Gadsden  its  commanding  offi 
cers,  Colonel  Gibson  of  the  army  and  Captain  McKeever 
of  the  navy.  He  was  writing  a  dispatch  at  the  time  to 
the  Secretary  of  War,  which  he  hastened  to  close  with  this 
most  gratifying  intelligence  :  "  I  shall  move  to-morrow," 
he  said,  "  having  made  the  necessary  arrangements  with 
Captain  McKeever  for  his  co-operation  in  transporting 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  259 

my  supplies  around  to  the  Bay  of  St.  Marks,  from  which 
place  I  shall  do  myself  the  honor  of  communicating  with 
you.  Should  our  enemy  attempt  to  escape  with  his  sup 
plies  and  booty  to  the  small  islands,  and  thence  to  carry 
on  a  predatory  warfare,  the  assistance  of  the  navy  will 
prevent  his  escape." 

General  Jackson  on  the  following  day  was  in  full 
march  toward  St.  Marks.  He  left  Fort  Gadsden  on  the 
26th  of  March,  was  joined  by  one  regiment  of  Tennes- 
seeans  on  the  ist  of  April,  and  on  the  same  day  had  a 
brush  with  the  enemy.  A  "  number  "  of  Indians,  we  are 
told  in  the  official  report,  were  discovered  engaged  in 
the  peaceful  employment  of  "  herding  cattle."  An  attack 
upon  these  dusky  herdsmen  was  instantly  ordered.  One 
American  killed  and  four  wounded,  fourteen  Indians 
killed  and  four  women  prisoners,  were  the  results  of  this 
affair.  The  army  advanced  upon  the  town  to  which  the 
herdsmen  belonged,  and  found  it  deserted.  "  On  reach 
ing  the  square,  we  discovered  a  red  pole  planted  at  the 
council  house,  on  which  was  suspended  about  fifty  fresh 
scalps,  taken  from  the  heads  of  extreme  age  down  to  the 
tender  infant,  of  both  sexes;  and  in  an  adjacent  house 
those  of  nearly  three  hundred  men,  which  bore  the  ap 
pearance  of  being  the  barbarous  trophies  of  settled 
hostility  for  three  or  four  years  past."* 

General  Gaines  continued  the  pursuit  on  the  follow 
ing  day,  and  gathered  a  prodigious  booty.  "  The  red 
pole,"  says  the  adjutant's  report,  "  was  again  found 
planted  in  the  square  of  Fowltown,  barbarously  deco 
rated  with  human  scalps  of  both  sexes,  taken  within  the 
last  six  months  from  the  heads  of  our  unfortunate  citi 
zens.  General  Mclntosh,  who  was  with  General  Gaines 

*  These  scalps  were  doubtless  the  accumulation  of  many  years  and 
of  previous  wars.  The  Seminoles  had  not  taken  ten  scalps  since  the 
War  of  1812,  exclusive  of  those  of  Lieutenant  Scott's  party. 


26o  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

routed  a  small  party  of  savages  near  Fowltown,  killed 
one  negro  and  took  three  prisoners,  on  one  of  whom  was 
found  the  coat  of  James  Champion,  of  Captain  Cum- 
ming's  company,  Fourth  Regiment  of  Infantry,  who  was 
killed  by  the  Indians  on  board  of  one  of  our  boats 
descending  the  river  to  the  relief  of  Major  Muhlenburg. 
The  pocket-book  of  Mr.  Leigh,  who  was  murdered  at 
Cedar  Creek  on  the  2ist  of  January  last,  was  found, 
in  Kinghajah's  town,  containing  several  letters  ad 
dressed  to  the  deceased,  and  one  to  General  Glascock. 
About  one  thousand  head  of  cattle  fell  into  our  hands, 
many  of  which  were  recognized  by  the  Georgia  militia 
as  having  brands  and  marks  of  their  citizens.  Nearly  three 
thousand  bushels  of  corn  were  found,  with  other  articles 
useful  to  the  army.  Upward  of  three  hundred  houses 
were  consumed,  leaving  a  tract  of  fertile  country  in  ruin, 
where  these  wretches  might  have  lived  in  plenty  but  for 
the  vile  machinations  of  foreign  traders,  if  not  agents." 
On  the  6th  of  April  the  army  reached  St.  Marks,  and 
halted  in  the  vicinity  of  the  fort.  The  general  sent  in 
to  the  Governor  his  aide-de-camp,  Lieutenant  Gadsden, 
bearing  a  letter  explanatory  of  his  objects  and  purposes. 
He  had  come,  he  said,  "  to  chastise  a  savage  foe,  who, 
combined  with  a  lawless  band  of  negro  brigands,  had 
been  for  some  time  past  carrying  on  a  cruel  and  unpro 
voked  war  against  the  citizens  of  the  United  States." 
He  had  already  met  and  put  to  flight  parties  of  the  hos 
tile  Indians.  He  had  received  information  that  those 
Indians  had  fled  to  St.  Marks  and  found  protection 
within  its  walls ;  that  both  Indians  and  negroes  had  pro 
cured  supplies  of  ammunition  there;  and  that  the  Span 
ish  garrison,  from  the  smallness  of  its  numbers,  was  un 
able  to  resist  the  demands  of  the  savages.  "  To  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  so  gross  a  violation  of  neutrality,  and 
to  exclude  our  savage  enemies  from  so  strong  a  hold  as 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  26l 

St.  Marks,  I  deem  it  expedient  to  garrison  that  fortress 
with  American  troops  until  the  close  of  the  present  war. 
This  measure  is  justifiable  on  the  immutable  principle  of 
self-defense,  and  can  not  but  be  satisfactory,  under  exist 
ing  circumstances,  to  his  Catholic  Majesty  the  King  of 
Spain." 

The  Governor  replied  that  he  had  been  made  to  un 
derstand  General  Jackson's  letter  only  with  the  greatest 
difficulty,  as  there  was  no  one  within  the  fort  who  could 
properly  translate  it.  He  denied  that  the  Indians  and 
negroes  had  ever  obtained  supplies,  succor,  or  encour 
agement  from  Fort  St.  Marks.  On  the  contrary,  they 
had  menaced  the  fort  with  assault  because  supplies  had 
been  refused  them.  With  regard  to  delivering  up  the 
fort  intrusted  to  his  care,  he  had  no  authority  to  do  so, 
and  must  write  on  the  subject  to  his  Government.  Mean 
while  he  prayed  General  Jackson  to  suspend  his  opera 
tions.  "  The  sick  your  Excellency  sent  in,"  concluded 
the  polite  Governor,  "  are  lodged  in  the  Royal  Hospital, 
and  I  have  afforded  them  every  aid  which  circumstances 
admit.  I  hope  your  Excellency  will  give  me  other  oppor 
tunities  of  evincing  the  desire  I  have  to  satisfy  you.  I 
trust  your  Excellency  will  pardon  my  not  answering  you 
as  soon  as  requested,  for  reasons  which  have  been  given 
you  by  your  aide-de-camp.  I  do  not  accompany  this 
with  an  English  translation,  as  your  Excellency  desires, 
because  there  is  no  one  in  the  fort  capable  thereof,  but 
the  before-named  William  Hambly  proposes  to  translate 
it  to  your  Excellency  in  the  best  manner  he  can." 

This  was  delivered  to  General  Jackson  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  yth  of  April.  He  instantly  replied  to  it  by 
taking  possession  of  the  fort !  The  Spanish  flag  was 
lowered,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  floated  from  the  flagstaff, 
and  American  troops  took  up  their  quarters  within  the 
fortress.  The  Governor  made  no  resistance,  and  indeed 
18 


262  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

could  make  none.  When  all  was  over,  he  sent  to  General 
Jackson  a  formal  protest  against  his  proceedings,  to 
which  the  general  briefly  replied :  "  The  occupancy  of 
Fort  St.  Marks  by  my  troops  previous  to  your  assenting 
to  the  measure  became  necessary  from  the  difficulties 
thrown  in  the  way  of  an  amicable  adjustment,  notwith 
standing  my  assurances  that  every  arrangement  should 
be  made  to  your  satisfaction,  and  expressing  a  wish  that 
my  movements  against  our  common  enemy  should  not 
be  retarded  by  a  tedious  negotiation.  I  again  repeat 
what  has  been  reiterated  to  you  through  my  aide-de 
camp,  Lieutenant  Gadsden,  that  your  personal  rights 
and  private  property  shall  be  respected,  that  your  situa 
tion  shall  be  made  as  comfortable  as  practicable  while 
compelled  to  remain  in  Fort  St.  Marks,  and  that  trans 
ports  shall  be  furnished,  as  soon  as  they  can  be  obtained 
to  convey  yourself,  family,  and  command  to  Pensacola." 

Alexander  Arbuthnot,  a  Scotch  trader  among  the  In 
dians,  was  found  within  the  fort,  an  inmate  of  the  Gov 
ernor's  own  quarters.  It  appears  that  on  the  arrival  of 
General  Jackson  he  was  preparing  to  leave  St.  Marks. 
His  horse,  saddled  and  bridled,  was  standing  at  the  gate. 
General  Jackson  had  no  sooner  taken  possession  of  St. 
Marks  than  Arbuthnot  became  a  prisoner.  "  In  Fort  St. 
Marks,"  wrote  General  Jackson,  "  an  inmate  in  the  fam 
ily  of  the  Spanish  commandant,  an  Englishman  by  the 
name  of  Arbuthnot  was  found.  Unable  satisfactorily  to 
explain  the  object  of  his  visiting  this  country,  and  there 
being  a  combination  of  circumstances  to  justify  a  sus 
picion  that  his  views  were  not  honest,  he  was  ordered 
into  close  confinement." 

For  two  days  only  the  army  remained  at  Fort  St. 
Marks.  Suwanee,  the  far-famed  and  dread  Suwanee, 
the  town  of  the  great  chief  Boleck,  or  Bowlegs,  the 
refuge  of  negroes,  was  General  Jackson's  next  object. 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  263 

It  was  one  hundred  and  seven  miles  from  St.  Marks, 
and  the  route  lay  through  a  flat  and  swampy  wilderness, 
little  known  and  destitute  of  forage.  On  the  9th  of 
April,  leaving  a  strong  garrison  at  the  fort,  and  supply 
ing  the  troops  with  rations  for  eight  days,  the  general 
again  plunged  into  the  forest — the  white  troops  in  ad 
vance,  the  Indians,  under  General  Mclntosh,  a  few  miles 
in  the  rear. 

The  army  made  slow  progress,  wading  through  ex 
tensive  sheets  of  water  ;  the  horses  starving  for  want  of 
forage,  and  giving  out  daily  in  large  numbers.  Late  in 
the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  the  troops  reached  a 
u  remarkable  pond,"  which  the  Indian  guides  said  was 
only  six  miles  from  Suwanee  town.  "  Here,"  says  the 
general,  "  I  should  have  halted  for  the  night  had  not  six 
mounted  Indians  (supposed  to  be  spies),  who  were  dis 
covered,  effected  their  escape.  This  determined  me  to 
attempt  by  a  forced  movement  to  prevent  the  removal 
of  their  effects,  and,  if  possible,  themselves  from  cross 
ing  the  river,  for,  my  rations  being  out,  it  was  all-im 
portant  to  secure  their  supplies  for  the  subsistence  of 
my  troops."  At  sunset,  accordingly,  the  lines  were 
formed,  and  the  whole  army  rushed  forward. 

But  the  prey  had  been  forewarned.  A  letter  from 
Arbuthnot  to  his  son  had  reached  the  place  and  had 
been  explained  to  Bowlegs,  who  had  been  ever  since 
employed  in  sending  the  women  and  children  across  the 
broad  Suwanee  into  those  inaccessible  retreats  which 
render  Florida  the  best  place  in  the  world  for  such 
warfare  as  Indians  wage.  The  troops  reached  the  vicin 
ity  of  the  town,  and  in  a  few  minutes  drove  out  the 
enemy  and  captured  the  place.  The  pursuit  was  con 
tinued  on  the  following  morning  by  General  Gaines  ; 
but  the  foe  had  vanished  by  a  hundred  paths,  and  were 
no  more  seen. 


264  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

In  the  evening  of  April  lyth  the  whole  army  en 
camped  on  the  level  banks  of  the  Suwanee.  In  the 
dead  of  night  an  incident  occurred  which  can  here  be 
related  in  the  'language  of  the  same  young  Tennessee 
officer  who  has  already  narrated  for  us  the  capture  of 
the  chiefs  and  their  execution.  Fortunately  for  us,  he 
kept  a  journal  of  the  campaign.  This  journal,  written 
at  the  time  partly  with  a  decoction  of  roots  and  partly 
with  the  blood  of  the  journalist* — for  ink  was  not  attain 
able — lay  for  forty  years  among  his  papers,  and  was 
copied  at  length  by  the  obliging  hand  of  his  daughter 
for  the  readers  of  these  pages.  "About  midnight  of 
April  i8th,"  wrote  our  journalist,  "  the  repose  of  the 
army,  then  bivouacked  on  the  plains  of  the  old  town 
of  Suwanee,  was  suddenly  disturbed  by  the  deep-toned 
report  of  a  musket,  instantly  followed  by  the  sharp 
crack  of  the  American  rifle.  The  signal  to  arms  was 
given,  and  where  but  a  moment  before  could  only  be 
heard  the  measured  tread  of  the  sentinels  and  the  low 
moaning  of  the  long-leafed  pines,  now  stood  five  thou 
sand  men,  armed,  watchful,  and  ready  for  action.  The 
cause  of  the  alarm  was  soon  made  known.  Four  men, 
two  whites  and  two  negroes,  had  been  captured  while  at 
tempting  to  enter  the  camp.  They  were  taken  in  charge 
by  the  guard,  and  the  army  again  sank  to  such  repose 
as  war  allows  her  votaries.  When  morning  came  it  was 
ascertained  that  the  prisoners  were  Robert  C.  Ambrister, 
a  white  attendant  named  Peter  B.  Cook,  and  two  negro 
servants — Ambrister  being  a  nephew  of  the  English  gov 
ernor,  Cameron,  of  the  Island  of  New  Providence,  an  ex- 
lieutenant  of  British  marines,  and  suspected  of  being 
engaged  in  the  business  of  counseling  and  furnishing 
munitions  of  war  to  the  Indians  in  furtherance  of  their 

*  Mr.  J.  B.  Rodgers,  of  South  Rock  Island,  Tennessee. 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  265 

contest  with  the  United  States.  Ignorant  of  the  situa 
tion  of  the  American  camp,  he  had  blundered  into  it 
while  endeavoring  to  reach  Suwanee  town  to  meet  the 
Indians,  being  also  unaware  that  the  latter  had  been 
driven  thence  on  the  previous  day  by  Jackson." 

Ambrister  was  conducted  to  St.  Marks  and  placed  in 
confinement,  together  with  his  companions.  The  fact 
that  through  Arbuthnot  the  Suwanee  people  had  es 
caped,  thus  rendering  the  last  swift  march  comparatively 
fruitless,  was  calculated,  it  must  be  owned,  to  exasperate 
the  mind  of  General  Jackson. 

The  Seminole  War,  so  called,  was  over,  for  the  time. 
On  the  2oth  of  April  the  Georgia  troops  marched  home 
ward  to  be  disbanded.  On  the  24th,  General  Mclntosh 
and  his  brigade  of  Indians  were  dismissed.  On  the  25th, 
General  Jackson,  with  his  Tennesseeans  and  regulars, 
was  again  at  Fort  St.  Marks.  It  was  forty-six  days 
since  he  had  entered  Florida,  and  thirteen  weeks  since 
he  left  Nashville. 

General  Jackson,  on  his  homeward  march,  halted  at 
the  fortress  of  St.  Marks,  to  decide  the  fate  of  the 
prisoners  Ambrister  and  Arbuthnot.  He  had  deter 
mined  to  accord  them  the  indulgence  of  a  trial,  and  now 
selected  for  that  purpose  a  "  special  court  "  of  fourteen 
officers,  who  were  ordered  to  "  record  all  the  documents 
and  testimony  in 'the  several  cases,  and  their  opinion  as 
to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  the  prisoners,  and  what  pun 
ishment,  if  any,  should  be  inflicted." 

At  noon  on  the  28th  of  April  the  court  convened. 
The  members  were  sworn,  and  Arbuthnot  was  arraigned. 
The  charges  brought  against  him  were  three  in  number. 
First  charge :  Exciting  the  Creek  Indians  to  war  against 
the  United  States.  Second  charge  :  Acting  as  a  spy, 
aiding  and  comforting  the  enemy,  and  supplying  them 
with  the  means  of  war.  Third  charge :  Exciting  the 


266  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

Indians  to  murder  and  destroy  William  Hambly  and 
Edmund  Doyle,  and  causing  their  arrest  with  a  view  to 
their  condemnation  to  death  and  the  seizure  of  their 
property,  on  account  of  their  active  and  zealous  exer 
tions  to  maintain  peace  between  Spain,  the  United 
States,  and  the  Indians,  they  being  citizens  of  the 
Spanish  Government. 

The  evidence  adduced  was  of  two  kinds,  documentary 
and  personal.  The  letters  and  papers  that  were  found 
on  board  the  prisoner's  schooner  were  all  submitted  to 
the  court.  They  proved  that  the  prisoner  had  sympa 
thized  with  the  Seminoles;  that  he  had  considered  them 
an  injured  people;  that  he  had  written  many  letters  en 
treating  the  interference  in  their  behalf  of  English, 
Spanish,  and  American  authorities  ;  that  he  had  given 
them  notice  of  the  approach  of  General  Jackson's  army, 
and  advised  them  to  fly ;  that  he  had  on  all  occasions 
exerted  whatever  influence  he  possessed  to  induce  the 
Indians  to  live  in  peace  with  one  another  and  with  their 
neighbors. 

Arbuthnot  in  his  defense  called  the  captain  of  his 
vessel,  who  testified  that  no  arms  had  been  brought  to 
the  province  by  the  prisoner,  and  but  small  quantities 
of  powder  and  lead;  and  that  Ambrister  had  seized  the 
prisoner's  schooner  and  used  it  for  purposes  of  his  own. 
Arbuthnot's  address  to  the  court  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  trial  was  respectful,  calm,  and  able.  He  commented 
chiefly  upon  the  hearsay  character  of  the  evidence.  The 
"  trial "  over,  the  prisoner  was  removed,  and  the  court 
deliberated.  Two  thirds  of  the  court  concurred  in  the 
following  opinion  and  sentence  :  "  The  court,  after  ma 
ture  deliberation  on  the  evidence  adduced,  find  the 
prisoner,  A.  Arbuthnot,  guilty  of  the  first  charge,  and 
guilty  of  the  second  charge,  leaving  out  the  words 
*  acting  as  a  spy  ' ;  and,  after  mature  reflection,  sentence 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  26/ 

him,  A.  Arbuthnot,  to  be  suspended  by  the  neck  until 
he  is  dead." 

Ambrister  was  next  arraigned.  He  was  accused  of 
aiding  and  comforting  the  enemy,  and  of  "  levying 
war  against  the  United  States,"  by  assuming  command 
of  the  Indians  and  ordering  a  party  of  them  "  to  give 
battle  to  an  army  of  the  United  States."  It  was  proved 
against  Ambrister  that  he  had  come  to  Florida  to  "  see 
the  negroes  righted  "  ;  that  he  had  captured  Arbuthnot's 
schooner,  plundered  his  store,  and  distributed  its  con 
tents  among  his  negro  and  Indian  followers;  that  he 
had  written  to  New  Providence  asking  that  arms  and 
ammunition  might  be  sent  to  the  Indians;  and  that  he 
had  sent  a  party  to  "  oppose  "  the  American  invasion. 
The  last-named  fact  was  proved  by  a  sentence  in  one  of 
his  own  letters  to  the  Governor  of  New  Providence.  "  I 
expect,"  wrote  Ambrister,  March  20,  1818,  "  that  the 
Americans  and  Indians  will  attack  us  daily.  I  have 
sent  a  party  of  men  to  oppose  them." 

The  prisoner  made  no  formal  defense,  but  merely 
remarked  that,  "  inasmuch  as  the  testimony  which  was 
introduced  in  this  case  was  very  explicit,  and  went  to 
every  point  the  prisoner  could  wish,  he  has  nothing  fur 
ther  to  offer  in  his  defense,  but  puts  himself  upon  the 
mercy  of  the  honorable  court." 

The  honorable  court  pronounced  him  guilty  of  the 
principal  charge,  and  sentenced  him  to  be  shot.  But  we 
are  told  that,  "  one  of  the  members  of  the  court  request 
ing  a  reconsideration  of  his  vote  on  the  sentence,  the 
sense  of  the  court  was  taken  thereon  and  decided  in  the 
affirmative,  when  the  vote  was  again  taken,  and  the 
court  sentenced  the  prisoner  to  receive  fifty  stripes  on 
his  bare  back,  and  to  be  confined  with  a  ball  and  chain 
to  hard  labor  for  twelve  calendar  months." 

The  trials,  which  began  at  noon  on  the  26th,  termi- 


268  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

nated  late  in  the  evening  of  the  28th,  when  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  court  were  submitted  to  the  commanding  gen 
eral.  On  the  following  morning,  before  the  dawn  of 
day,  General  Jackson  and  the  main  body  of  his  army 
were  in  full  march  for  Fort  Gadsden.  He  left  at  St. 
Marks  a  garrison  of  American  troops.  The  following 
order  with  regard  to  the  court  and  the  prisoners  it  had 
tried,  issued  just  before  his  departure,  was  dated 

"CAMP,  FOUR  MILES  NORTH  OF  ST.  MARKS,  April 2(),  l8l8. 

"  The  commanding  general  approves  the  finding  and 
sentence  of  the  court  in  the  case  of  A.  Arbuthnot,  and 
approves  the  finding  and  first  sentence  of  the  court  in 
the  case  of  Robert  C.  Ambrister,  and  disapproves  the 
reconsideration  of  the  sentence  of  the  honorable  court 
in  this  case. 

"  It  appears,  from  the  evidence  and  pleading  of  the 
prisoner,  that  he  did  lead  and  command  within  the  terri 
tory  of  Spain  (being  a  subject  of  Great  Britain)  the  In 
dians  in  war  against  the  United  States,  those  nations 
being  at  peace.  It  is  an  established  principle  of  the  laws 
of  nations  that  any  individual  of  a  nation  making  war 
against  the  citizens  of  any  other  nation,  they  being  at 
peace,  forfeits  his  allegiance  and  becomes  an  outlaw  and 
pirate.  This  is  the  case  of  Robert  C.  Ambrister,  clearly 
shown  by  the  evidence  adduced. 

"  The  commanding  general  orders  that  brevet  Major 
A.  C.  W.  Fanning,  of  the  corps  of  artillery,  will  have, 
between  the  hours  of  8  and  9  o'clock,  A.  M.,  A.  Arbuth 
not  suspended  by  the  neck  with  a  rope  until  he  is 
dead,  and  Robert  C.  Ambrister  to  be  shot  to  death,  agree 
ably  to  the  sentence  of  the  court." 

The  sentences  of  the  general  were  immediately  exe 
cuted.  It  is  difficult  to  characterize  aright  this  deplor 
able  tragedy.  Arbuthnot  was  put  to  death  for  acts  every 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  DEPARTMENT.  269 

one  of  which  was  innocent,  and  some  of  which  were  emi 
nently  praiseworthy.  Even  Ambrister's  fault  was  one 
which  General  Jackson  himself  would  have  been  certain 
to  commit  in  the  same  circumstances.  He  sent  a  party 
to  "  oppose  "  the  invasion  of  the  province  ;  and  even  his 
seizure  of  Arbuthnot's  schooner  seems  to  have  been  done 
to  provide  his  followers  with  the  means  of  defense. 
Arbuthnot  was  convicted  upon  the  evidence  of  men  who 
had  the  strongest  interest  in  his  conviction.  And  who 
presided  over  the  court  ?  Was  it  not  General  Gaines, 
whose  treatment  of  the  Fowltown  warriors,  first  arrogant 
and  then  precipitate,  was  the  direct  cause  of  the  war  and 
ail  its  horrors  ? 

Of  all  the  men  concerned  in  this  tragedy,  General 
Jackson  was  perhaps  the  least  blameworthy.  We  can 
survey  the  transaction  in  its  completeness,  but  he  could 
not.  He  carried  out  of  the  War  of  1812  the  bitterest 
recollections  of  Nichols  and  Woodbine,  who  had  given 
protection,  succor,  and  honor  to  the  fugitive  Creeks.  A 
train  of  circumstances  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that 
Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister  were  still  doing  the  work  in 
Florida  that  Nichols  and  Woodbine  had  begun  in  1814. 
He  expressly  says,  in  one  of  his  dispatches,  that  at  the 
beginning  of  his  operations  he  was  "  strongly  impressed 
with  the  belief  that  this  Indian  war  had  been  excited  by 
some  unprincipled  foreign  agents,"  and  that  the  Semi- 
noles  were  too  weak  in  numbers  to  have  undertaken  the 
war  unless  they  had  received  assurances  of  foreign 
support.  Woodbine  had  actually  been  in  Florida  the 
summer  before,  brought  thither  by  Arbuthnot.  To  the 
"  machinations  "  of  these  men  General  Jackson  attrib 
uted  the  massacre  of  Lieutenant  Scott,  and  considered 
them  equally  guilty.  They  were  at  length  in  his  power, 
and  he  then  selected  fourteen  of  his  officers  to  examine 
the  evidence  against  them.  After  three  days'  investiga- 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

tion  those  officers  brought  in  a  verdict  that  accorded  ex 
actly  with  his  own  previous  convictions,  as  well  as  with 
the  representations  of  men  who  surrounded  his  person 
and  had  an  interest  in  confirming  his  impressions. 

This  is  not  a  justification,  for  it  is  not  permitted  to 
any  man  to  make  mistakes  of  the  kind  that  costs  human 
lives.  The  execution  of  Ambrister  had  some  slight 
shadow  of  justice,  but  that  of  poor  Arbuthnot  had  none, 
and  the  violent  death  of  that  worthy  old  man  must  re 
main  a  blot  upon  the  memory  of  Andrew  Jackson.  The 
executions  created  in  England  such  general  and  extreme 
indignation  that  nothing  but  the  prudence  of  the  minis 
try  prevented  a  war  between  the  two  countries.  At  home 
these  sad  events  were  little  understood,  and  after  a  de 
bate  of  a  whole  month  upon  them  in  Congress  the  con 
duct  of  the  general  was  approved. 

In  1821,  when  Florida,  after  some  years  of  negotia 
tion,  was  ceded  to  the  United  States,  General  Jackson 
was  appointed  Governor  of  that  Territory  by  President 
Monroe.  He  accepted  the  appointment,  resigned  his 
commission  in  the  army,  and  set  out  on  his  journey. 
Delays  vexatious  but  unavoidable  occurred  in  the  de 
livery  of  the  province,  and  even  after  he  had  taken  pos 
session  the  Governor  was  in  the  worst  possible  humor. 
Mrs.  Jackson,  who  accompanied  her  fiery  lord  on  this 
occasion,  wrote  home  in  August :  "  There  never  was  a 
man  more  disappointed  than  the  general  has  been.  In 
the  first  place,  he  has  not  the  power  to  appoint  one  of 
his  friends ;  which,  I  thought,  was  in  part  the  reason  of 
his  coming.  But  far  has  it  exceeded  every  calculation  ; 
it  has  almost  taken  his  life.  Captain  Call  says  it  is  equal 
to  the  Seminole  campaign.  Well,  I  knew  it  would  be  a 
ruining  concern.  I  shall  not  pretend  to  describe  the  toils, 
fatigue,  and  trouble.  Those  Spaniards  had  as  lieve  die 
as  give  up  their  country.  He  has  had  terrible  scenes. 


COMMANDER  OF  THE  SOUTHERN   DEPARTMENT.  271 

The  Governor  has  been  put  in  the  calaboose,  which  is  a 
terrible  thing,  really."  Yes,  the  Spanish  Governor,  Colo 
nel  Callava,  who  of  all  the  governors  of  Pensacola  was 
by  far  the  most  agreeable  and  the  most  respectable 
character,  had  indeed  been  put  into  the  calaboose.  He 
was  a  Castilian,  of  a  race  akin  to  the  Saxon,  of  light 
complexion,  a  handsome,  well-grown  man,  of  dignified 
presence  and  refined  manners.  If  an  angel  from  heaven 
had  appeared  to  General  Jackson  in  the  guise  of  a  Span 
ish  governor  he  would  not  have  liked  him,  so  rooted 
was  his  prejudice  against  Spanish  governors.  And  that 
Spanish  governor  from  heaven  would  have  found  it  diffi 
cult  to  so  far  forget  or  overlook  what  General  Jackson 
had  formerly  done  in  Florida  as  to  regard  the  general 
with  an  entirely  friendly  eye.  The  presence,  therefore, 
of  Colonel  Callava  in  Pensacola — particularly  after  what 
had  occurred  previous  to  the  surrender — furnished  the 
material  for  a  grand  explosion,  provided  the  Governor 
and  the  ex-Governor  should  by  any  accident  come  into 
collision. 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  details  of  this  affair, 
which  was  more  ludicrous  than  tragic.  In  a  few  months 
General  Jackson  resigned  his  office  and  resumed  the  life 
of  a  planter  on  the  fertile  shores  of  the  Cumberland 
River.  He  reached  the  Hermitage  November  3,  1821, 
unspeakably  disgusted  with  his  brief  exercise  of  civil 
authority.  He  was  then  fifty-four  years  of  age.  Already 
he  had  lived,  as  it  were,  two  lives.  He  had  first  assisted 
to  subdue  the  Western  wilderness,  and  then  taken  the 
lead  in  defending  it.  He  had  first  broken  the  power  of 
the  Southern  Indians,  and  then,  by  a  series  of  treaties, 
regulated  the  terms  upon  which  they  were  to  live  in 
neighborhood  with  the  conquering  race.  He  had  first 
won  by  his  diligence  and  skill  a  fair  private  estate,  and 
then  acquired,  by  his  valor  and  conduct  in  war,  national 


272  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

renown  and  intense  popularity.  He  might  well  think 
that  he  had  done  his  part,  had  borne  his  share  of  private 
and  public  burdens,  and  might  now,  with  impaired  health 
and  strength,  sit  down  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree 
and  rest.  That  such  was  his  sincere  desire  and  real  in 
tention  there  are  sufficient  reasons  to  believe.  Civil 
service  he  appears  always  to  have  accepted  unwillingly, 
and  resigned  gladly.  Nothing  but  a  summons  to  the 
field  ever  completely  overcame  his  reluctance  to  leave 
his  happy  home ;  and  now  that  the  aspect  of  the  world 
was  such  as  to  promise  a  lasting  peace  to  his  country, 
he  had,  doubtless,  no  thought  but  to  pass  his  remaining 
days  in  the  pleasant  labors  of  his  farm  and  the  tranquil 
enjoyment  of  his  home. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

A    CANDIDATE    FOR    THE    PRESIDENCY. 

THE  presidential  campaign  of  1824  was  the  least  in 
structive  one  that  ever  occurred,  because  it  was  the 
most  exclusively  personal.  But  it  was  far  from  being 
the  least  exciting.  The  long  lull  in  the  political  firma 
ment  had  given  every  one  a  desire  for  a  renewal  of  the 
old  excitements,  and  there  was  everywhere  an  eager 
buzz  of  preparation.  During  the  last  three  years  of  Mr. 
Monroe's  second  term  the  great  topic  of  conversation 
throughout  the  country  was,  Who  shall  be  our  next 
President  ?  Five  candidates  were  frequently  mentioned, 
each  of  whom  had  devoted  partisans :  William  H.  Craw 
ford,  of  Georgia,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  John  Quincy 
Ajdams,  Secretary  of  State;  John  C.  Calhoun,  Secretary 
of  War ;  Henry  Clay,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  ;  De  Witt  Clinton,  Governor  of  New  York — 
all  strong,  able,  and  popular  men.  But  the  name  of 
Jackson  had  no  sooner  been  presented  to  the  nation  by 
the  Legislature  of  Tennessee,  than  it  was  discovered  that 
his  popularity  was  about  to  render  him  a  most  formida 
ble  competitor.  To  promote  his  presidential  prospects 
his  friends  caused  him  to  be  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States.  Pennsylvania  soon  seconded  his  nomi 
nation,  and  most  of  the  Southern  States  showed  a  strong 
inclination  to  support  him.  Mr.  Calhoun  withdrew  his 
own  name  in  favor  of  the  victor  of  New  Orleans,  and 
consented  to  stand  for  the  vice-presidency.  The  pros- 


274  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

pects  of  General  Jackson  were  further  improved  by  Mr. 
Crawford  being  stricken  with  paralysis,  which  totally 
prostrated  him,  and,  in  effect,  narrowed  the  contest  to 
Adams  and  Jackson. 

John  C.  Calhoun  was  elected  Vice-President  by  a 
great  majority.  He  received  182  electoral  votes  out  of 
261.  All  New  England  voted  for  him  except  Connecti 
cut  and  one  electoral  district  of  New  Hampshire.  Gen 
eral  Jackson  received  thirteen  electoral  votes  for  the 
vice-presidency,  and  was  the  choice  of  two  entire  states 
for  that  office — Connecticut  and  Missouri. 

Now  for  the  presidency.  Mr.  Adams  was  the  choice 
of  seven  States,  General  Jackson  of  eleven  States,  Mr. 
Clay  of  three  States,  Mr.  Crawford  of  three  States.  Still 
no  majority.  The  population  of  the  United  States  in 
1820  was  about  nine  and  a  half  millions.  The  popula 
tion  of  the  three  States  which  gave  a  majority  for  Mr. 
Clay  was  1,212,337.  The  population  of  the  three  States 
which  preferred  Mr.  Crawford  was  1,497,029.  The  popu 
lation  of  the  seven  States  which  gave  a  majority  for  Mr, 
Adams  was  3,032,766.  The  population  of  the  eleven 
States  which  voted  for  General  Jackson  was  3,757,756. 
It  thus  appears  that  General  Jackson  received  more 
electoral  votes,  the  vote  of  more  States,  and  the  votes 
of  more  people,  than  any  other  candidate.  Add  to  these 
facts  that  General  Jackson  was  the  second  choice  of 
Kentucky,  Missouri,  and  Georgia,  and  it  must  be  ad 
mitted  that  he  came  nearer  being  elected  by  the  people 
than  any  other  candidate.  He  was,  moreover,  a  gaining 
candidate ;  every  month  added  to  his  strength. 

The  result  was  not  known  in  all  its  details  when  the 
time  came  for  Senator  Jackson  to  begin  his  journey  to 
Washington  in  the  fall  of  1824.  That  he  was  confident, 
however,  of  being  the  successful  candidate,  was  indicated 
by  Mrs.  Jackson's  accompanying  him  to  the  seat  of  gov- 


A  CANDIDATE   FOR  THE   PRESIDENCY. 


275 


eminent.  They  traveled  in  their  own  coach-and-four,  I 
believe,  on  this  occasion.  The  opposition  papers,  at 
least,  said  so,  and  descanted  upon  the  fact  as  an  evidence 
of  aristocratic  pretensions ;  considering  it  antidemocratic 
to  employ  four  horses  to  draw  a  load  that  four  horses 
sometimes  could  not  tug  a  mile  an  hour,  and  were  a 
month  in  getting  to  Washington. 

The  people  having  failed  to  elect  a  President,  it  de 
volved  upon  the  IJouse  of  Representatives,  voting  by 
States,  each  State  having  one  vote  to  elect  one  from  the 
three  candidates  who  had  received  the  highest  number 
of  electoral  votes.  A  majority  of  States  being  necessary 
to  an  election,  some  one  candidate  had  to  secure  the 
vote  of  thirteen  States.  The  great  question  was  to  be 
decided  on  the  pth  of  February,  1825. 

The  result,  when  announced  by  the  tellers,  surprised 
almost  every  one — surprised  many  of  the  best-informed 
politicians  who  heard  it.  Upon  the  first  ballot,  Mr. 
Adams  received  the  vote  of  thirteen  States,  which  was  a 
majority.  Maryland  and  Illinois,  which  had  given 
popular  majorities  for  Jackson,  voted  for  Adams.  Ken 
tucky,  Ohio,  and  Missouri,  which  had  given  popular  ma 
jorities  for  Clay,  voted  for  Adams.  Crawford  received 
the  vote  of  four  States — Delaware,  North  Carolina, 
Georgia,  and  Virginia.  General  Jackson,  for  whom 
eleven  States  had  given  an  electoral  majority,  received 
the  vote  of  but  seven  States  in  the  House. 

Was  General  Jackson,  indeed,  so  heartily  acquiescent 
in  his  defeat  as  he  seemed  to  be  ?     He  was  disappointed 
and  indignant,  believing  that  he  had  been  defrauded  of 
the  2rj^d£ncjj)y  j^mi^^ 
and_Mr.  Clay.     In  UjisJ)e^JJjrejiejjJ_Ja^ 
died.     His  partisans  took  up  the  cry,  and  made  it  the 
crTTe?   ground  of  opposition  to    Mr.  Adams's  adminis 
tration. 


276  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

General  Jackson  was  renominated  for  the  presidency 
by  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  before  Mr.  Adams  had 
served  one  year.  The  general  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
Senate,  and  entered  heartily  into  the  schemes  of  his 
friends.  His  popularity,  great  as  it  was  before,  seemed 
vastly  increased  by  his  late  defeat,  and  by  the  belief,  in 
dustriously  promulgated,  that  he  had  been  cheated  of 
the  office  to  which  the  people  desired  to  elevate  him. 

The  campaign  of  1828  opened  with  a  stunning  flour 
ish  of  trumpets.  Louisiana,  like  New  York,  was  a 
doubtful  and  troublesome  State.  In  1827  the  Legis 
lature  of  Louisiana,  which  had  refused  to  recognize 
General  Jackson's  services  in  1815,  invited  him  to  re 
visit  New  Orleans,  and  unite  with  it  in  the  celebration 
of  the  8th  of  January,  1828,  on  the  scene  of  his  great 
victory. 

The  reception  of  General  Jackson  at  New  Orleans 
on  this  occasion  was,  I  presume,  the  most  stupendous 
thing  of  the  kind  that  had  ever  occurred  in  the  United 
States.  Delegations  from  States  as  distant  as  New  York 
were  sent  to  New  Orleans  to  swell  the  tilatol  the  demon 
stration.  "The  morning  of  the  auspicious  day,"  wrote 
an  eyewitness,  "  dawned  upon  New  Orleans.  A  thick 
mist  covered  the  water  and  the  land,  and  at  ten  o'clock 
began  to  rise  into  clouds ;  and  when  the  sun  at  last 
appeared,  it  served  only  to  show  the  darkness  of  the 
horizon  threatening  a  storm  in  the  north.  It  was  at 
that  moment  the  city  became  visible,  with  its  steeples, 
and  the  forest  of  masts  rising  from  the  waters.  At  that 
instant,  too,  a  fleet  of  steamboats  was  seen  advancing 
toward  the  Pocahontas,  which  had  now  got  under  way, 
with  twenty-four  flags  waving  over  her  lofty  decks. 
Two  stupendous  boats,  lashed  together,  led  the  van.  The 
whole  fleet  kept  up  a  constant  fire  of  artillery,  which 
was  answered  from  several  ships  in  the  harbor  and  from 


A  CANDIDATE   FOR   T  HJ:   PRESIDENCY.         277 

the  shore.  General  Jackson  stood  on  the  back  gallery 
of  the  Pocahontas,  his  head  uncovered,  conspicuous  to 
the  whole  multitude,  which  literally  covered  the  steam 
boats,  the  shipping,  and  the  surrounding  shores.  The 
van  which  bore  the  Revolutionary  soldiers  and  the  rem 
nant  of  the  old  Orleans  Battalion  passed  the  Pocahontas, 
and,  rounding  to,  fell  down  the  stream,  while  acclama 
tions  of  thousands  of  spectators  rang  from  the  river  to 
the  woods  and  back  to  the  river. 

"  In  this  order  the  fleet,  consisting  of  eighteen  steam 
boats  of  the  first  class,  passed  close  to  the  city,  direct 
ing  their  course  toward  the  field  of  battle.  When  it  was 
first  descried,  some  horsemen  only,  the  marshals  of  the 
day,  had  reached  the  ground ;  but  in  a  few  minutes  it 
seemed  alive  with  a  vast  multitude,  brought  thither  on 
horseback  and  in  carriages,  and  poured  forth  from  the 
steamboats.  A  line  was  formed  by  Generals  Planche* 
and  Labaltat,  and  the  committee  repaired  on  board  the 
Pocahontas,  in  order  to  invite  the  general  to  land  and 
meet  his  brother-soldiers  and  fellow-citizens.  I  have  no 
words  to  describe  the  scene  which  ensued." 

The  festivities  continued  four  days,  at  the  expiration 
of  which  the  general  and  his  friends  re-embarked  on 
board  the  Pocahontas  and  returned  homeward. 

The  campaign  now  set  in  with  its  usual  severity.  Gen 
eral  Jackson  was  accused  of  every  crime,  offense,  and  im 
propriety  that  man  was  ever  known  to  be  guilty  of.  His 
whole  life  was  subject  to  the  severest  scrutiny.  Every 
one  of  his  duels,  fights,  and  quarrels  was  narrated  at 
length.  His  conn^ctJQnjffiiLh  Aaron  Burr  wast  of  course^ 
a.  favorite  theme.  The  mil:tary  executions  which  he 
had  ordered  were  all  recounted.*  John  Binns,  of  Phila- 

*  On  February  21,  1815,  in  an  open  place  near  the  (then)  village  of 
Mobile,  the  execution  occurred  of  six  militiamen,  officers  and  privates, 

19 


2/8  GEN  E1AL  JACKSON. 

delphia,  issued  a  series  of  handbills,  each  bearing  the 
outline  of  a  coffin-lid,  upon  which  was  printed  an  in 
scription  recording  the  death  of  one  of  these  victims. 
Campaign  papers  were  first  started  this  year.  One,  en 
titled  We  the  People,  and  another,  called  The  Anti-Jack 
son  Expositor,  were  particularly  prominent.  The  con 
duct  of  General  Jackson  in  Florida  during  his  governor 
ship  of  that  Territory  was  detailed. 

The  number  of  electoral  votes  in  1828  was  two  hun 
dred  and  sixty-one.  One  hundred  and  thirty-one  was  a 
majority.  General  Jackson  received  one  hundred  and 
seventy-eight ;  Mr.  Adams,  eighty-three. 

In  all  Tennessee,  Adams  and  Rush  obtained  less 
than  three  thousand  votes.  In  many  towns  every  vote 
was  cast  for  Jackson  and  Calhoun.  A  distinguished 
member  of  the  North  Carolina  Legislature  told  me  that 
he  happened  to  enter  a  Tennessee  village  in  the  evening 
of  the  last  day  of  the  presidential  election  of  1828.  He 
found  the  whole  male  population  out  hunting,  the  object 
of  the  chase  being  two  of  their  fellow-citizens.  He  in 
quired  by  what  crime  these  men  had  rendered  them 
selves  so  obnoxious  to  their  neighbors,  and  was  in 
formed  that  they  had  voted  against  General  Jackson ! 
The  village,  it  appeared,  had  set  its  heart  upon  sending 
up  a  unanimous  vote  for  the  general,  and  these  two 
voters  had  frustrated  its  desire.  As  the  day  wore  on, 
the  whisky  flowed  more  and  more  freely,  and  the  result 
was  a  universal  chase  after  the  two  voters,  with  a  view 

convicted  by  a  court-martial  of  "  mutiny."  A  body  of  troops  number 
ing  fifteen  hundred  were  drawn  up  to  witness  the  scene  ;  the  men  were 
blindfolded,  and  each  man  knelt  upon  his  coffin.  Thirty-six  soldiers 
were  detailed  for  the  purpose,  six  to  fire  at  each.  The  sentence  was 
duly  carried  out,  and  for  several  years  the  country  was  excited  over  the 
event,  and  much  adverse  criticism  of  General  Jackson  found  expression 
in  the  newspapers. — EDITOR. 


A  CANDIDATE   FOR   THE  PRESIDENCY. 


2/9 


to  tarring  and  feathering  them.  They  fled  to  the  woods, 
however,  and  were  not  taken. 

The  news  of  General  Jackson's  election  to  the  presi 
dency,  I  was  informed  by  Major  Lewis,  created  no  great 
sensation  at  the  Hermitage,  so  certain  beforehand  were 
its  inmates  of  a  result  in  accordance  with  their  desires. 
Mrs.  Jackson  quietly  said : 

"Well,  for  Mr.  Jackson's  sake,  I  am  glad;  for  my 
own  part,  I  never  wished  it." 

The  people  of  Nashville,  greatly  elated  by  the  suc 
cess  of  their  general,  resolved  to  celebrate  it  in  the 
way  in  which  they  had  long  been  accustomed  to  cele 
brate  every  important  event  in  his  career.  A  banquet 
unparalleled  should  be  given  in  honor  of  his  last  tri 
umph.  The  day  appointed  for  this  affair  was  the  23d 
of  December,  the  anniversary  of  the  night  battle  below 
New  Orleans.  General  Jackson  accepted  the  invitation 
to  be  present.  Certain  ladies  of  Nashville,  meanwhile, 
were  secretly  preparing  for  Mrs.  Jackson  a  magnificent 
wardrobe,  suitable,  as  they  thought,  for  the  adornment 
of  her  person  when,  as  mistress  of  the  White  House,  she 
would  be  deemed  the  first  lady  in  the  nation.  She  was 
destined  never  to  wear  those  splendid  garments. 

For  four  or  five  years  the  health  of  Mrs.  Jackson 
had  been  precarious.  She  had  complained  occasionally 
of  an  uneasy  feeling  about  the  region  of  the  heart;  and, 
during  the  late  excitements,  she  had  been  subject  to 
sharper  pains  and  palpitation.  She  died  December  22d, 
late  in  the  evening.  Her  husband  was  shocked  and 
grieved  beyond  expression.  It  was  long,  as  I  was  as 
sured  by  her  favorite  servant  Hannah,  before  he  would 
believe  that  she  had  really  breathed  her  last. 

The  sad  news  reached  Nashville  early  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  23d,  when  already  the  committee  of  arrange 
ments  were  busied  with  the  preparations  for  the  gen- 


28O  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

eral's  reception.  "  The  table  was  well-nigh  spread," 
said  one  of  the  papers,  "  at  which  all  was  expected  to  be 
hilarity  and  joy,  and  our  citizens  had  sallied  forth  on 
the  morning  with  spirits  light  and  buoyant,  and  counte 
nances  glowing  with  animation  and  hope,  when  suddenly 
the  scene  is  changed:  congratulations  are  turned  into 
expressions  of  condolence,  tears  are  substituted  for 
smiles,  and  sincere  and  general  mourning  pervades  the 
community." 

General  Jackson  never  recovered  from  the  shock  of 
his  wife's  death.  He  was  never  quite  the  same  man 
afterward.  It  subdued  his  spirit  and  corrected  his 
speech.  Except  on  occasions  of  extreme  excitement, 
few  and  far  between,  he  never  again  used  what  is  com 
monly  called  "  profane  language,"  not  even  the  familiar 
phrase,  "  By  the  Eternal."  There  were  times,  of  course, 
when  his  fiery  passions  asserted  themselves;  when  he 
uttered  wrathful  words;  when  he  wished  even  to  throw 
off  the  robes  of  office,  as  he  once  said,  that  he  might 
call  his  enemies  to  a  dear  account.  But  these  were  rare 
occurrences.  He  mourned  deeply  and  ceaselessly  the 
loss  of  his  truest  friend,  and  was  often  guided  in  his  do 
mestic  affairs  by  what  he  supposed  would  have  been  her 
will  if  she  had  been  there  to  make  it  known. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

INAUGURATION. 

HAGGARD  with  grief  and  watching,  "twenty  years 
older  in  a  night,"  as  one  of  his  friends  remarked,  the 
President-elect  was  compelled  to  enter  without  delay 
upon  the  labor  of  preparing  for  his  journey  to  Washing 
ton.  His  inaugural  address  was  written  at  the  house  of 
Major  Lewis,  near  Nashville.  But  one  slight  alteration 
was  made  in  this  document  after  the  general  reached 
the  seat  of  government.  Before  leaving  home,  the 
general  drew  up  a  series  of  rules  for  the  guidance  of  his 
administration,  one  of  which  was  that  no  member  of  his 
Cabinet  should  be  his  successor.  The  party  left  Nash 
ville  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  about  the  middle  of  January. 
The  journey  to  Washington — every  one  knows  what  it 
must  have  been.  The  complete,  the  instantaneous  ac 
quiescence  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the 
decision  of  a  constitutional  majority  was  well  illustrated 
on  this  occasion.  The  steamboat  that  conveyed  the 
general  and  his  party  down  the  Cumberland  to  the  Ohio 
and  up  the  Ohio  to  Pittsburg — a  voyage  of  several  days 
— was  saluted  or  cheered  as  often  as  it  passed  a  human 
habitation.  At  Cincinnati  it  seemed  as  if  all  Ohio,  and 
at  Pittsburg  as  if  all  Pennsylvania,  had  rushed  forth  to 
shout  a  welcome  to  the  President-elect.  Indeed,  the 
whole  country  appeared  to  more  than  acquiesce  in  the 
result  of  the  election. 

The  day  of  the  inauguration  was  one  of  the  brightest 


282  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

and  balmiest  of  the  spring.  Mr.  Webster,  in  his  comic 
manner,  remarks:  "I  never  saw  such  a  crowd  here 
before.  Persons  have  come  five  hundred  miles  to  see 
General  Jackson,  and  they  really  seem  to  think  that  the 
country  is  rescued  from  some  dreadful  danger!"  The 
ceremony  over,  the  President  drove  from  the  Capitol  to 
the  White  House,  followed  soon  by  a  great  part  of  the 
crowd  who  had  witnessed  the  inauguration.  Judge 
Story,  a  strenuous  Adams  man,  did  not  enjoy  the  scene 
which  the  apartments  of  the  "  palace,"  as  he  styles  it, 
presented  on  this  occasion.  "  After  the  ceremony  was 
over,"  he  wrote,  "the  President  went  to  the  palace  to 
receive  company,  and  there  he  was  visited  by  immense 
crowds  of  all  sorts  of  people,  from  the  highest  and  most 
polished  down  to  the  most  vulgar  and  gross  in  the 
nation.  I  never  saw  such  a  mixture.  The  reign  of 
King  Mob  seemed  triumphant.  I  was  glad  to  escape 
from  the  scene  as  soon  as  possible." 

Soon  after  General  Jackson  arrived  at  the  seat  of 
government  he  informed  Edward  Livingston,  of  Louisi 
ana,  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  the  foreordained  Secretary 
of  State  of  the  incoming  Administration,  and  offered 
him  the  choice  of  the  seats  remaining.  Mr.  Livingston, 
just  then  elected  to  the  Senate,  preferred  his  senatorship 
to  any  office  in  the  Government  except  the  one  already 
appropriated.  In  distributing  the  six  great  offices,  Gen 
eral  Jackson  assigned  two  to  the  North,  two  to  the  West, 
and  two  to  the  South. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  accepted  the  first  place  without  hesi 
tation,  resigned  the  governorship  of  New  York  after 
.holding  it  seventy  days,  and  entered  upon  his  duties  at 
Washington  three  weeks  after  the  inauguration.  Samuel 
D.  Ingham,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  appointed  to  the  second 
place  in  the  Cabinet — that  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
John  H.  Eaton,  Senator  from  Tennessee,  was  appointed 


INAUGURATION.  283 

Secretary  of  War.  General  Jackson  was,  from  the  first,' 
determined  to  have  in  his  Cabinet  one  of  his  own  Ten 
nessee  circle  of  friends,  and  Mr.  Eaton  was  the  one 
selected.  The  Navy  Department  was  assigned  to  John 
Branch,  for  many  years  a  Senator  from  North  Carolina. 
John  Macpherson  Berrien,  of  Georgia,  was  appointed 
Attorney-General.  William  T.  Barry,  of  Kentucky,  was 
appointed  Postmaster-General.  Such  was  the  first  Cab 
inet  of  the  new  President.  With  the  exception  of  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  its  members  had  no  great  influence  over  the 
measures  of  their  chief,  and  play  no  important  part  in 
the  general  history  of  the  times. 

No  sooner  had  General  Jackson  announced  the  names 
of  the  gentlemen  who  were  to  compose  his  Cabinet,  than 
an  opposition  to  one  of  them  manifested  itself  of  a 
peculiar  and  most  virulent  character.  Mr.  Eaton,  the 
President's  friend  and  neighbor,  was  the  object  of  this 
opposition,  the  grounds  of  which  must  be  particularly 
stated,  for  it  led  to  important  results.  A  certain  Wil 
liam  O'Neal  kept  at  Washington  for  many  years  a  large, 
old-fashioned  tavern,  where  members  of  Congress  in 
considerable  numbers  boarded  during  the  sessions  of 
the  national  Legislature.  William  O'Neal  had  a  daughter, 
sprightly  and  beautiful,  who  aided  him  and  his  wife  in 
entertaining  his  boarders.  Peg  O'Neal,  as  she  was  called, 
was  so  lively  in  her  deportment,  so  free  in  her  conversa 
tion,  that,  had  she  been  born  twenty  years  later,  she 
would  have  been  called  one  of  the  "  fast "  girls  of  Wash 
ington. 

When  Major  Eaton  first  came  to  Washington  as  a 
Senator  of  the  United  States,  in  the  year  1818,  he  took 
board  at  Mr.  O'Neal's  tavern,  and  continued  to  reside 
there  every  winter  for  ten  years.  He  became  acquainted, 
of  course,  with  the  family,  including  the  vivacious  and 
attractive  Peg.  When  General  Jackson  came  to  the  city 


284  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

as  Senator  in  1823,  he  also  went  to  live  with  the  O'Neals, 
whom  he  had  known  in  Washington  before  it  had  become 
the  seat  of  government.  For  Mrs.  O'Neal,  who  was  a 
remarkably  efficient  woman,  he  had  a  particular  respect. 
Even  during  his  presidency,  when  he  was  supposed  to 
visit  no  one,  it  was  one  of  his  favorite  relaxations,  when 
worn  out  with  business,  to  stroll  with  Major  Lewis  across 
the  "old  fields  "  near  Washington  to  the  cottage  where 
Mrs.  O'Neal  lived  in  retirement,  and  enjoy  an  hour's 
chat  with  the  old  lady.  Mrs.  Jackson,  also,  during  her 
residence  in  Washington  in  1825,  became  attached  to 
Mrs.  O'Neal  and  to  her  daughter. 

In  the  course  of  time  Miss  O'Neal  became  the  wife 
of  Purser  Timberlake,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  and 
the  mother  of  two  children.  In  1828  came  the  news 
that  Mr.  Timberlake,  then  on  duty  in  the  Mediterranean, 
had  cut  his  throat  in  a  fit  of  melancholy,  induced,  it  was 
said,  by  previous  intoxication.  On  hearing  this  intelli 
gence,  Major  Eaton,  then  a  widower,  felt  an  inclination 
to  marry  Mrs.  Timberlake,  for  whom  he  had  entertained 
an  attachment  quite  as  tender  as  a  man  could  lawfully 
indulge  for  the  wife  of  a  friend  and  brother-mason.  He 
took  the  precaution  to  consult  General  Jackson  on  the 
subject.  "Why,  yes,  major,"  said  the  general,  "if  you 
love  the  woman,  and  she  will  have  you,  marry  her,  by  all 
means."  Major  Eaton  mentioned,  what  the  general  well 
knew,  that  Mrs.  Timberlake's  reputation  in  Washington 
had  not  escaped  reproach,  and  that  Major  Eaton  him 
self  was  supposed  to  have  been  too  intimate  with  her. 
"  Well,"  said  the  general,  "  your  marrying  her  will  dis 
prove  these  charges,  and  restore  Peg's  good  name." 
And  so,  perhaps,  it  might,  if  Major  Eaton  had  not  been 
taken  into  the  Cabinet. 

Eaton  and  Mrs.  Timberlake  were  married  in  January, 
1829,  a  few  weeks  before  General  Jackson  arrived  at  the 


INAUGURATION.  285 

seat  of  government.  As  soon  as  it  was  whispered  about 
Washington  that  Major  Eaton  was  to  be  a  member  of 
the  new  Cabinet,  it  occurred  with  great  force  to  the 
minds  of  certain  ladies,  who  supposed  themselves  to  be 
at  the  head  of  society  at  the  capital,  that  in  that  case 
Peg  O'Neal  would  be  the  wife  of  a  Cabinet  minister, 
and,  as  such,  entitled  to  admission  into  their  own  sacred 
circle. 

From  the  moment  the  scandal  reached  his  ears  the 
new  President  made  Mr.  Eaton's  cause  his  own.  He 
sent  a  confidential  agent  to  New  York  to  investigate  one 
of  the  stories.  He  wrote  so  many  letters  and  statements 
in  relation  to  this  business  that  Major  Lewis,  who  lived 
in  the  White  House,  was  worn  out  with  the  nightly  toil 
of  copying.  The  entire  mass  of  the  secret  and  confi 
dential  writings  relating  to  Mrs.  Eaton,  all  dated  in  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1829,  and  most  of  them  originally 
in  General  Jackson's  hand,  would  fill  about  one  hundred 
and  sixty  of  these  pages.  And  besides  these,  there  was 
a  large  number  of  papers  and  documents  not  deemed 
important  enough  for  preservation.  General  Jackson, 
indeed,  brought  to  the  defense  of  Mrs.  Eaton  all  the  fire 
and  resolution  with  which,  forty  years  before,  he  had 
silenced  every  whisper  against  Mrs.  Jackson.  He  con 
sidered  the  cases  of  the  two  ladies  parallel.  His  zeal 
in  behalf  of  Mrs.  Eaton  was  a  manifestation  or  conse 
quence  of  his  wrath  against  the  calumniators  of  his  wife. 
At  length  the  President  of  the  United  States  brought 
this  matter  before  his  Qabinet.  The  members  of  the 
Cabinet  having  assembled  one  day  in  the  usual  place, 
the  accusers  were  brought  before  them,  when  the  Presi 
dent  endeavored  to  demonstrate  that  Mrs.  Eaton  was 
<'  as  chaste  as  snow."  Whether  the  efforts  of  the  Presi 
dent  had  or  had  not  the  effect  of  convincing  the  ladies 
of  Washington  that  Mrs.  Eaton  was  worthy  of  admission 


286  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

into  their  circle,  shall  in  due  time  be  related.  Upon  a 
point  of  that  nature  ladies  are  not  convinced  easily. 
Meanwhile,  the  suitors  for  presidential  favor  are  advised 
to  make  themselves  visible  at  the  lady's  receptions. 
A  card  in  Mrs.  Eaton's  card-basket  is  not  unlikely  to  be 
a  winning  card. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

TERROR    AMONG    THE    OFFICE-HOLDERS. 

IT  is  delightful  to  observe  with  what  a  scrupulous 
conscientiousness  the  early  Presidents  of  this  republic 
disposed  of  the  places  in  their  gift.  Washington  de 
manded  to  be  satisfied  on  three  points  with  regard  to  an 
applicant  for  office  :  Is  he  honest  ?  Is  he  capable  ?  Has 
he  the  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens  ?  Not  till  these 
questions  were  satisfactorily  answered  did  he  deign  to 
inquire  respecting  the  political  opinions  of  a  candidate. 
Private  friendship  between  the  President  and  an  appli 
cant  was  absolutely  an  obstacle  to  his  appointment,  so 
fearful  was  the  President  of  being  swayed  by  private 
motives.  "  My  friend,"  he  says,  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  I 
receive  with  cordial  welcome.  He  is  welcome  to  my 
house  and  welcome  to  my  heart ;  but,  with  all  his  good 
qualities,  he  is  not  a  man  of  business.  His  opponent, 
with  all  his  politics  so  hostile  to  me,  is  a  man  of  busi 
ness.  My  private  feelings  have  nothing  to  do  in  the 
case.  I  am  not  George  Washington,  but  President  of 
the  United  States.  As  George  Washington,  I  would  do 
this  man  any  kindness  in  my  power  ;  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  I  can  do  nothing."  The  example  of 
General  Washington  was  followed  by  his  successors. 

Up  to  the  hour  of  the  delivery  of  General  Jackson's 
inaugural  address  it  was  supposed  that  the  new  Presi 
dent  would  act  upon  the  principles  of  his  predecessors. 
In  his  former  letters  he  had  taken  strong  ground  against 


288  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

partisan  appointments,  and  when  he  resigned  his  seat  in 
the  Senate  he  had  advocated  two  amendments  to  the 
Constitution,  designed  to  limit  and  purify  the  exercise  of 
the  appointing  power.  One  of  these  proposed  amend 
ments  forbade  the  re-election  of  a  President,  and  the 
other  the  appointment  of  members  of  Congress  to  any 
office  not  judicial. 

The  sun  had  not  gone  down  upon  the  day  of  his 
inauguration  before  it  was  known  in  all  official  circles 
in  Washington  that  the  "reform  "  alluded  to  in  the  in 
augural  address  meant  a  removal  from  office  of  all  who 
had  conspicuously  opposed,  and  an  appointment  to  office 
of  those  who  had  conspicuously  aided,  the  election  of 
the  new  President.  The  work  was  promptly  begun. 
Colonel  Benton  will  not  be  suspected  of  overstating  the 
facts  respecting  the  removals,  but  he  admits  that  their 
number,  during  this  year  (1829)  was  six  hundred  and 
ninety.  His  estimate  of  six  hundred  and  ninety  does 
not  include  the  little  army  of  clerks  and  others  who 
were  at  the  disposal  of  some  of  the  six  hundred  and 
ninety.  The  estimate  of  two  thousand  includes  all  who 
lost  their  places  in  consequence  of  General  Jackson's 
accession  to  power ;  and,  though  the  exact  number  can 
not  be  ascertained,  I  presume  it  was  not  less  than  two 
thousand.  Colonel  Benton  says  that  of  the  eight  thou 
sand  postmasters,  only  four  hundred  and  ninety-one 
were  removed ;  but  he  does  not  add,  as  he  might  have 
added,  that  the  four  hundred  and  ninety-one  vacated 
places  comprised  nearly  all  in  the  department  that  were 
worth  having.  Nor  does  he  mention  that  the  removal 
of  the  postmasters  of  half  a  dozen  great  cities  was 
equivalent  to  the  removal  of  many  hundreds  of  clerks, 
bookkeepers,  and  carriers. 

In    the   eagerness   of   his  desire   to   "stand   by  his 
friends,"  the  President  was  brought  into  collision  with  the 


TERROR  AMONG  THE   OFFICE-HOLDERS.      289 

Bank  of  the  United  States,  a  truly  imposing  and  powerful 
institution  in  1829.  Its  capital  was  thirty-five  millions. 
The  public  money  deposited  in  its  vaults  averaged  six 
or  seven  millions ;  its  private  deposits,  six  millions  more  ; 
its  circulation,  twelve  millions;  its  discounts,  more  than 
forty  millions  a  year  ;  its  annual  profits,  more  than  three 
millions.  Besides  the  parent  bank  at  Philadelphia  with 
its  marble  palace  and  hundred  clerks,  there  were  twenty- 
five  branches  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  Union,  each 
of  which  had  its  president,  cashier,  and  board  of  direct 
ors.  The  employees  of  the  bank  were  more  than  five 
hundred  in  number,  all  men  of  standing  and  influence, 
all  liberally  salaried.  In  every  county  of  the  Union,  in 
every  nation  on  the  globe,  were  stockholders  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States.  One  fifth  of  its  stock  was 
owned  by  foreigners.  One  fourth  of  its  stock  was  held 
by  women,  orphans,  and  the  trustees  of  charity  funds — 
so  high,  so  unquestioned  was  its  credit.  Its  bank  notes 
were  as  good  as  gold  in  every  part  of  the  country. 
From  Maine  to  Georgia,  from  Georgia  to  Astoria,  a  man 
could  travel  and  pass  these  notes  at  every  point  with 
out  discount.  Nay,  in  London,  Paris,  Rome,  Cairo,  Cal 
cutta,  or  St.  Petersburg,  the  notes  of  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  were  worth  a  fraction  more  or  a  fraction 
less  than  their  value  at  home,  according  to  the  current 
rate  of  exchange.  They  could  usually  be  sold  at  a 
premium  at  the  remotest  commercial  centers.  It  was 
not  uncommon  for  the  stock  of  the  bank  to  be  sold  at  a 
premium  of  forty  per  cent.  The  directors  of  this  bank 
were  twenty-five  in  number,  of  whom  five  were  appoint 
ed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States.  The  bank 
and  its  branches  received  and  disbursed  the  entire  rev 
enue  of  the  nation.  At  the  head  of  this  great  establish 
ment  was  the  once  renowned  Nicholas  Biddle. 

General  Jackson  had  no  thought  of  the  bank  until 


2QO  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

he  had  been  President  two  months.  He  came  to  Wash 
ington  anticipating  but  a  single  term,  during  which  the 
question  of  rechartering  the  bank  was  not  expected  to 
come  up.  The  bank  was  chartered  in  1816  for  twenty 
years,  which  would  not  expire  until  1836,  three  years 
after  General  Jackson  hoped  to  be  at  the  Hermitage 
once  more,  never  to  leave  it.  The  first  intercourse,  too, 
between  the  bank  and  the  new  Administration  was  in 
the  highest  degree  courteous  and  agreeable.  A  large 
payment  was  to  be  made  of  the  public  debt  early  in  the 
summer,  and  the  manner  in  which  the  bank  managed 
that  affair,  at  some  loss  and  much  inconvenience  to 
itself,  but  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  public  and  to 
the  credit  of  the  Government,  won  from  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  a  warm  eulogium. 

But  while  this  affair  was  going  on  so  pleasantly, 
trouble  was  brewing  in  another  quarter.  Isaac  Hill, 
from  New  Hampshire,  then  Second  Comptroller  of  the 
treasury,  was  a  great  man  at  the  White  House.  He  had 
a  grievance.  Jeremiah  Mason,  one  of  the  three  great 
lawyers  of  New  England,  a  Federalist,  a  friend  of  Daniel 
Webster  and  of  Mr.  Adams,  had  been  appointed  to  the 
presidency  of  the  branch  of  the  United  States  Bank  at 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire — much  to  the  disgust  of 
Isaac  Hill  and  other  Jackson  men  of  that  State.  Isaac 
Hill  desired  the  removal  of  Mr.  Mason,  and  the  appoint 
ment  in  his  place  of  a  gentleman  who  was  a  friend  of 
the  new  Administration. 

Mr.  Hill  caused  petitions  to  be  addressed  to  the 
directors  of  the  bank,  in  which  Mr.  Mason  was  accused 
of  partiality,  haughtiness,  mismanagement,  and  his  re 
moval  demanded.  Mr.  Biddle  went  himself  to  Ports 
mouth,  where  he  spent  six  days  in  investigating  the 
charges,  and  satisfied  himself  that  they  were  groundless. 
He  informed  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  had 


TERROR  AMONG  THE  OFFICE-HOLDERS. 


29I 


addressed  him  on  the  subject,  that  the  directors  would 
not  remove  a  faithful  servant  for  political  reasons.  So 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  triumphed  over  Isaac  Hill 
and  the  Administration.  It  was  a  dear  victory. 

Near  the  close  of  the  new  President's  first  message 
was  the  famous  passage  which  sounded  the  first  note  of 
war  against  the  United  States  Bank :  "  The  charter  of 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States  expires  in  1836,  and  its 
stockholders  wiW  most  probably  apply  for  a  renewal  of 
their  privileges.  In  order  to  avoid  the  evils  resulting 
from  precipitancy  in  a  measure  involving  such  impor 
tant  principles  and  such  deep  pecuniary  interests,  I  feel 
that  I  can  not,  in  justice  to  the  parties  interested,  too 
soon  present  it  to  the  deliberate  consideration  of  the 
Legislature  and  the  people.  Both  the  constitutionality 
and  the  expediency  of  the  law  creating  this  bank  are 
well  questioned  by  a  large  portion  of  our  fellow-citi 
zens;  and  it  must  be  admitted  by  all  that  it  has  failed 
in  the  great  end  of  establishing  a  uniform  and  sound 
currency." 

The  Senate  retorted  by  rejecting  the  nomination  of 
Isaac  Hill  to  the  second  comptrollership  of  the  Treas 
ury,  which  the  President  amended  by  causing  Mr.  Hill 
to  be  elected  Senator  from  New  Hampshire.  Many 
other  nominations  were  rejected,  and  the  great  bank  in 
many  ways  frustrated  and  defied  the  President.  After 
years  of  loud  and  vehement  strife,  the  rechartering  of 
the  United  States  Bank  was  prevented  by  him,  and  it 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  national  institution. 

Congress  met  on  the  yth  of  December,  1829.  Such 
was  the  strength  of  the  Administration  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  that  Andrew  Stephenson  was  re-elected 
to  the  speakership  by  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  votes 
out  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-one.  This  Congress, 
however,  came  in  with  the  Administration,  and  had  been 


292  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

elected  when  General  Jackson  was  elected.  This  was 
the  session  signalized  by  the  .great  debate  between  Mr. 
Hayne  and  Mr.  Webster,  the  first  of  many  debates  upon 
nullification. 

It  had  been  a  custom  in  Washington,  for  twenty 
years,  to  celebrate  the  birthday  (April  isth)  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  the  apostle  of  democracy.  As  General  Jack 
son  was  regarded  by  his  party  as  the  great  restorer  and 
exemplifier  of  Jeffersonian  principles,  it  was  natural  that 
they  should  desire  to  celebrate  the  festival,  this  year, 
with  more  than  usual  tclat.  It  was  so  resolved.  A 
banquet  was  the  mode  selected ;  to  which  the  President, 
the  Vice-President,  the  Cabinet,  many  leading  members 
of  Congress,  and  other  distinguished  persons,  were  in 
vited.  When  the  regular  toasts  were  over,  the  President 
was  called  upon  for  a  volunteer,  and  gave  it :  "  Our  Fed 
eral  Union  :  It  must  be  preserved." 

Mr.  Calhoun  gave  the  next  toast :  "  The  Union : 
Next  to  our  liberty  the  most  dear :  may  we  all  remember 
that  it  can  only  be  preserved  by  respecting  the  rights  of 
the  States,  and  distributing  equally  the  benefit  and  bur 
den  of  the  Union." 

It  was  supposed,  at  the  time,  that  the  toast  offered 
by  the  President  was  an  impromptu.  On  the  contrary, 
the  toast  was  prepared  with  singular  deliberation,  and 
was  designed  to  produce  the  precise  effect  it  did  pro 
duce.  Major  Lewis  favors  the  reader  with  the  following 
interesting  reminiscence  :  "  This  celebrated  toast,  '  The 
Federal  Union:  It  must  be  preserved,'  was  a  cool,  de 
liberate  act.  The  United  States  Telegraph,  General 
Duff  Green's  paper,  published  a  programme  of  the  pro 
ceedings  for  the  celebration  the  day  before,  to  which  the 
general's  attention  had  been  drawn  by  a  friend,  with  the 
suggestion  that  he  had  better  read  it.  This  he  did  in 
the  course  of  the  evening,  and  came  to  the  conclusion 


TERROR  AMONG  THE   OFFICE-HOLDERS.      293 

that  the  celebration  was  to  be  a  nullification  affair  alto 
gether.  With  this  impression  on  his  mind,  he  prepared 
early  the  next  morning  (the  day  of  the  celebration)  three 
toasts,  which  he  brought  with  him  when  he  came  into  his 
office,  where  he  found  Major  Donelson  and  myself  read 
ing  the  morning  papers.  After  taking  his  seat  he  handed 
them  to  me  and  asked  me  to  read  them,  and  tell  him 
which  I  preferred.  I  ran  my  eye  over  them  and  then 
handed  him  the  one  I  liked  best.  He  handed  them  to 
Major  Donelson  also,  with  the  same  request,  who,  on 
reading  them,  agreed  with  me.  He  said  he  preferred 
that  one  himself,  for  the  reason  that  it  was  shorter  and 
more  expressive.  He  then  put  that  one  into  his  pocket, 
and  threw  the  others  into  the  fire.  That  is  the  true  his 
tory  of  the  toast  the  general  gave  on  the  Jefferson  birth 
day  celebration  in  1830,  which  fell  among  the  nullifiers 
like  an  exploded  bomb  !  " 

The  year  1829  had  not  closed  before  General  Jackson 
was  resolved  to  do  all  that  in  him  lay  to  secure  the  elec 
tion  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  as  his  successor  to  the  presidency. 
Nor  did  that  year  come  to  an  end  before  he  began  to 
act  in  furtherance  of  the  project.  "All  through  the 
summer  and  fall  of  1829,"  writes  Major  Lewis,  "  Gen 
eral  Jackson  was  in  very  feeble  health,  and  in  December 
of  the  same  year  his  friends  became  seriously  alarmed 
for  his  safety.  It  occurred  to  me  that  General  Jackson's 
name,  though  he  might  be  dead,  would  prove  a  powerful 
lever,  if  judiciously  used,  in  raising  Mr.  Van  Buren  to 
the  presidency.  I  therefore  determined  to  get  the  gen 
eral,  if  possible,  to  write  a  letter  to  some  friend,  to  be 
used  at  the  next  succeeding  presidential  election  (in  case 
of  his  death),  expressive  of  the  confidence  he  reposed 
in  Mr.  Van  Buren's  abilities,  patriotism,  and  qualifica 
tions  for  any  station,  even  the  highest  within  the  gift  of 
the  people.  He  accordingly  wrote  a  letter  to  his  old 

20 


294  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

friend  Judge  Overton,  and  handed  it  to  me  to  copy,  with 
authority  to  make  such  alterations  as  I  might  think 
proper.  After  copying  it  (having  made  only  a  few  ver 
bal  alterations)  I  requested  him  to  read  it,  and,  if  satis 
fied  with  it,  to  sign  it.  He  read  it,  and  said  it  would  do, 
and  then  put  his  name  to  it,  remarking  as  he  returned 
it  to  me : 

"  '  If  I  die,  you  have  my  permission  to  make  such  use 
of  it  as  you  may  think  most  desirable.' " 

The  letter  to  Judge  Overton  contained  these  words : 
"  Permit  me  here  to  say  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  that  I  have 
found  him  everything  that  I  could  desire  him  to  be,  and 
believe  him  not  only  deserving  my  confidence  but  the 
confidence  of  the  nation.  Instead  of  his  being  selfish 
and  intriguing,  as  has  been  represented  by  some  of  his 
opponents,  I  have  ever  found  him  frank,  open,  candid, 
and  manly.  As  a  counselor,  he  is  able  and  prudent;  re 
publican  in  his  principles,  and  one  of  the  most  pleasant 
men  to  do  business  with  I  ever  saw.  He,  my  dear  friend, 
is  well  qualified  to  fill  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the 
people,  who  in  him  will  find  a  true  friend  and  safe  de 
pository  of  their  rights  and  liberty." 

Judge  Overton,  I  believe,  never  knew  the  purpose 
for  which  this  letter  was  written.  The  copy  retained 
was  signed  by  General  Jackson  and  placed  among  the 
secret  papers  of  Major  Lewis,  where  it  reposed  until 
copied  for  the  readers  of  these  pages. 

A  new  man  was  summoned  to  the  councils  of  the 
President — Lewis  Cass,  Governor  of  the  Territory  of 
Michigan,  who  was  installed  as  head  of  the  Department 
of  War  in  July.  The  vacant  attorney-generalship  was 
conferred  upon  Mr.  Roger  B.  Taney,  then  Attorney- 
General  of  Maryland,  afterward  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Taney  was  a 
lawyer  of  the  first  distinction  in  his  native  State.  He 


TERROR  AMONG  THE   OFFICE-HOLDERS.      295 

was  one  of  the  Federalists  who  had  given  a  zealous  sup 
port  to  General  Jackson  in  1828. 

At  the  next  session  of  Congress  the  Senate  confirmed 
the  nominations  of  Edward  Livingston,  Louis  McLane, 
Levi  Woodbury,  Lewis  Cass,  and  Roger  B.  Taney,  to 
their  respective  places  in  the  Cabinet.  Not  so  the  nomi 
nation  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  the  post  of  British  minister. 
Mr.  Calhoun,  at  that  time,  in  common  with  most  .of  the 
opposition,  attributed  to  the  machinations  of  Mr.  Van 
Buren  his  rupture  with  the  President  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  Cabinet.  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster  were  of  the 
opinion  that  it  was  Mr.  Van  Buren  who  had  induced  the 
President  to  adopt  the  New  York  system  of  party  re 
movals.  The  leaders  of  the  Senate  resolved  upon  the 
rejection  of  Mr.  Van  Buren. 

The  rejection  secured  Mr.  Van  Buren's  political  for 
tune.  His  elevation  to  the  presidency,  long  before  de 
sired  and  intended  by  General  Jackson,  became  from 
that  hour  one  of  his  darling  objects.  The  "party," 
also,  took  him  up  with  a  unanimity  and  enthusiasm  that 
left  the  wire-pullers  of  the  White  House  little  to  do. 
Letters  of  remonstrance  and  approbation,  signed  by  in 
fluential  members  of  the  party,  were  sent  over  the  sea  to 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  who  soon  found  that  his  rejection  was 
one  of  the  most  fortunate  events  of  his  public  life. 

The  last  important  act  of  President  Jackson's  first 
term  was  his  veto  of  the  bill  to  recharter  the  United 
States  Bank,  which  he  accompanied  by  a  message_pf 
singulax_e^ectiyejnifiss.  Concerning  the  financial  and 
legal  principles  laid  down  in  this  important  document 
financiers  and  lawyers  differ  in  opinion.  The  office  of 
the  present  chronicler  is  to  state  that  the  bank-veto 
message  of  President  Jackson  came  with  convincing 
power  upon  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  It  settled  the  question.  It  was  the  singular 


296  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

fortune  of  the  bank-veto  message  to  delight  equally  the 
friends  and  foes  of  the  bank.  The  opposition  circulated 
it  as  a  campaign  document !  Duff  Green  published  it  in 
his  extra  Telegraph,  calling  upon  all  the  opponents  of 
the  Administration  to  give  it  the  widest  publicity,  since 
it  would  damn  the  Administration  wherever  it  was  read. 
The  New  York  American  characterized  it  thus:  "It  is 
indeed  and  verily  beneath  contempt.  It  is  an  appeal  of 
ignorance  to  ignorance,  of  prejudice  to  prejudice,  of  the 
most  unblushing  partisan  hostility  to  the  obsequiousness 
of  partisan  servility.  No  man  in  the  Cabinet  proper  will 
be  willing  to  share  the  ignominy  of  preparing  or  ap 
proving  such  a  paper." 

Nicholas  Biddle  himself  was  enchanted  with  it,  for 
he  thought  it  had  saved  the  bank  by  destroying  the 
bank's  great  enemy.  "  You  ask,"  he  wrote  to  Henry 
Clay,  "  what  is  the  effect  of  the  veto  ?  My  impression 
is,  that  it  is  working  as  well  as  the  friends  of  the  bank 
and  of  the  country  could  desire." 

The  result  of  the  election  astonished  everybody. 
Not  the  wildest  Jackson  man  in  his  wildest  moment  had 
anticipated  a  victory  quite  so  overwhelming.  Two  hun 
dred  and  eighty-eight  was  the  whole  number  of  electoral 
votes  in  1832.  General  Jackson  received  two  hundred 
and  nineteen — seventy-four  more  than  a  majority.  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  for  the  vice-presidency,  received  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty-nine  electoral  votes — forty-four  more 
than  a  majority. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    SECOND    TERM. 

THE  triumphant  re-election  of  General  Jackson  in 
1832  was  a  sore  disappointment  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  to 
his  friends  the  "nullifiers  "  of  South  Carolina. 

The  War  of  1812  left  the  country  burdened  with  a  debt 
of  one  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  and  blessed 
with  a  great  number  of  small  manufactories.  The  debt 
and  the  manufactories  were  both  results  of  the  war.  By 
cutting  off  the  supply  of  foreign  manufactured  articles, 
the  war  had  produced  upon  the  home  manufacturing  in 
terests  the  effect  of  a  prohibitory  tariff.  To  pay  the  in 
terest  of  this  great  debt,  and  occasional  installments  of 
the  principal,  it  was  necessary  for  the  Government  to 
raise  a  far  larger  revenue  than  had  ever  before  been  col 
lected  in  the  United  States.  The  new  manufacturing  in 
terests  asked  that  the  duties  should  be  so  regulated  as 
to  afford  some  part  of  that  complete  protection  which 
the  war  had  given  it.  The  peace,  that  had  been  wel 
comed  with  such  wild  delight  in  1815,  had  prostrated 
entire  branches  of  manufacture  to  which  the  war  had 
given  a  sudden  development. 

Among  those  who  advocated  the  claims  of  the  manu 
facturers  in  the  session  of  i8i5~'i6,  and  strove  to  have 
the  protective  principle  permanently  incorporated  into 
the  revenue  legislation  of  Congress,  the  most  active,  the 
most  zealous,  was  John  C.  Calhoun,  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  from  South  Carolina.  He 


298  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

spoke  often  on  the  subject  and  he  spoke  unequivocally. 
Mr.  Clay,  who  was  then  the  friend,  ally,  and  messmate 
of  Mr.  Calhoun,  admitted  that  the  Carolinian  had  sur 
passed  himself  in  the  earnestness  with  which  he  labored 
in  the  cause  of  protection.  One  of  his  arguments  was 
drawn  from  the  condition  of  Poland  at  the  time.  "  The 
country  in  Europe  "  said  he,  "  having  the  most  skillful 
workmen,  is  broken  up.  It  is  to  us,  if  wisely  used,  more 
valuable  than  the  repeal  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  was  to 
England.  She  had  the  prudence  to  profit  by  it ;  let  us 
not  discover  less  political  sagacity.  Afford  to  inge 
nuity  and  industry  immediate  and  AMPLE  PROTECTION, 
and  they  will  not  fail  to  give  a  preference  to  this  free 
and  happy  country." 

The  protectionists,  led  by  Messrs.  Clay  and  Calhoun, 
triumphed  in  1816.  In  the  tariff  bill  of  1820  the  princi 
ple  was  carried  further,  and  still  further  in  those  of  1824 
and  1828.  But  about  the  year  1824  it  began  to  be 
thought  that  the  advantages  of  the  system  were  enjoyed 
chiefly  by  the  Northern  States,  and  the  South  hastened 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  protective  system  was  the 
cause  of  its  lagging  behind.  There  was,  accordingly,  a 
considerable  Southern  opposition  to  the  tariff  of  1824, 
and  a  general  Southern  opposition  to  that  of  1828.  In 
the  latter  year,  however,  the  South  elected  to  the  presi 
dency  General  Jackson,  whose  votes  and  whose  writings 
had  committed  him  to  the  prindj^e_pf  protection.  South 
ern  politicians  felt  that  the  general,  as  a  Southern  man, 
was  more  likely  to  further  their  views  than  Messrs. 
Adams  and  Clay,  both  of  whom  were  peculiarly  devoted 
to  protection. 

As  the  first  years  of  General  Jackson's  administration 
wore  away  without  affording  to  the  South  the  "  relief  " 
which  they  had  hoped  from  it,  the  discontent  of  the 
Southern  people  increased.  Circumstances  gave  them  a 


THE  SECOND   TERM. 


299 


new  and  telling  argument.  In  1831  the  public  debt  had 
been  so  far  diminished  as  to  render  it  certain  that  in 
three  years  the  last  dollar  of  it  would  be  paid.  The 
Government  had  been  collecting  about  twice  as  much 
revenue  as  its  annual  expenditures  required.  In  three 
years,  therefore,  there  would  be  an  annual  surplus  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  millions  of  dollars.  The  South  de 
manded  with  almost  a  united  voice,  that  the  duties 
should  be  reduced  so  as  to  make  the  revenue  equal  to 
the  expenditure,  and  that,  in  making  this  reduction,  the 
principle  of  protection  should  be,  in  effect,  abandoned. 
Protection  should  thenceforth  be  "  incidental  "  merely. 
The  session  of  i83i-'32  was  the  one  during  which  South 
ern  gentlemen  hoped  to  effect  this  great  change  in  the 
policy  of  the  country.  The  President's  message,  as  we 
have  seen,  also  announced  that,  in  view  of  the  speedy 
extinction  of  the  public  debt,  it  was  high  time  that  Con 
gress  should  prepare  for  the  threatened  surplus. 

The  case  was  one  of  real  difficulty.  It  was  a  case 
for  a  statesman.  To  reduce  the  revenue  thirteen  mil 
lions,  at  one  indiscriminate  swoop,  might  close  half  the 
workshops  in  the  country.  At  the  same  time,  for  the 
United  States  to  go  on  raising  thirteen  millions  a  year 
more  than  was  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  govern 
ment  would  have  been  an  intolerable  absurdity. 

Mr.  Clay,  after  an  absence  from  the  halls  of  Congress 
of  six  years,  returned  to  the  Senate  in  December,  1831 
— an  illustrious  figure,  the  leader  of  the  opposition,  its 
candidate  for  the  presidency,  his  old  renown  enhanced 
by  his  long  exile  from  the  scene  of  his  well-remembered 
triumphs.  The  galleries  filled  when  he  was  expected  to 
speak.  He  was  in  the  vigor  of  his  prime.  He  never 
spoke  so  well  as  then,  nor  as  often,  nor  so  long,  nor 
with  so  much  applause.  But  he  either  could  not  or 
dared  not  undertake  the  choking  of  the  surplus.  What 


300  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

wise,  complete,  far-reaching  measure  can  a  candidate  for 
the  presidency  link  his  fortunes  to  ?  He  wounded,  with 
out  killing  it ;  and  he  was  compelled,  at  a  later  day,  to 
do  what  it  had  been  glorious  voluntarily  to  attempt  in 
1832.  He  proposed  merely  that  "the  duties  upon  arti 
cles  imported  from  foreign  countries,  and  not  coming 
into  competition  with  similar  articles  made  or  produced 
within  the  United  States,  be  forthwith  abolished,  except 
the  duties  upon  wines  and  silks,  and  that  those  be  re 
duced."  After  a  debate  of  months'  duration,  a  bill  in 
accordance  with  this  proposition  passed  both  Houses, 
and  was  signed  by  the  President  It  preserved  the  pro 
tective  principle  intact;  it  reduced  the  income  of  the 
Government  about  three  millions  of  dollars;  and  it  in 
flamed  the  discontent  of  the  South  to  such  a  degree 
that  one  State,  under  the  influence  of  a  man  of  force,  be 
came  capable  of — nullification. 

The  President  signed  the  bill,  as  he  told  his  friends, 
because  he  deemed  it  an  approach  to  the  measure  re 
quired.  His  influence,  during  the  session,  had  been 
secretly  exerted  in  favor  of  compromise.  The  President 
thought  that  the  just  course  lay  between  the  two  ex 
tremes  of  abandoning  the  protective  principle  and  of 
reducing  the  duties  in  total  disregard  of  it. 

Here  was  the  opportunity  of  the  nullifiers.  A  con 
vention  of  the  people  of  South  Carolina  met  at  Colum 
bia,  November  19,  1832,  which  passed  an  "ordinance" 
declaring  that  the  tariff  law  of  1828,  and  the  amendment 
to  the  same  of  1832,  were  "null,  void,  and  no  law,  nor 
binding  upon  this  State,  its  officers  or  citizens,"  and  that 
no  duties  enjoined  by  that  law  or  its  amendment  '  shall 
be  paid,  or  permitted  to  be  paid,  in  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  after  the  first  day  of  February,  1833." 

The  message  of  the  new  Governor  indorsed  the  acts 
of  the  convention  in  the  strongest  language  possible. 


THE   SECOND   TERM. 


301 


"I  recognize,"  said  Governor  Hayne,  "no  allegiance  as 
paramount  to  that  which  the  citizens  of  South  Carolina 
owe  to  the  State  of  their  birth  or  their  adoption."  He 
said  more :  "  If  the  sacred  soil  of  Carolina  should  be 
polluted  by  the  footsteps  of  an  invader,  or  be  stained 
with  the  blood  of  her  citizens,  shed  in  her  defense,  I 
trust  in  Almighty  God  that  no  son  of  hers,  native  OP 
adopted,  who  has  been  nourished  at  her  bosom,  or  been 
cherished  by  her  bounty,  will  be  found  raising  a  parri 
cidal  arm  against  our  common  mother." 

The  Legislature  instantly  responded  to  the  message 
by  passing  the  acts  requisite  for  carrying  the  ordinance 
into  practical  effect.  The  Governor  was  authorized  to 
accept  the  services  of  volunteers,  who  were  to  hold 
themselves  in  readiness  to  march  at  a  moment's  warn 
ing.  The  State  resounded  with  the  noise  of  warlike 
preparation.  Blue  cockades  with  a  palmetto  button  in 
the  center  appeared  upon  thousands  of  hats,  bonnets, 
and  bosoms.  Medals  were  struck  ere  long,  bearing  this 
inscription :  "  John  C.  Calhoun,  First  President  of  the 
Southern  Confederacy."  The  Legislature  proceeded 
soon  to  fill  the  vacancy  created  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  by  the  election  of  Mr.  Hayne  to  the  gov 
ernorship.  John  C.  Calhoun,  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  was  the  individual  selected,  and  Mr.  Cal 
houn  accepted  his  seat.  He  resigned  the  vice-presi 
dency,  and  began  his  journey  to  Washington  in  Decem 
ber,  leaving  his  State  in  the  wildest  ferment. 

The  President  baffled  and  brought  to  naught  the  mis 
guided  men  who  originated  and  sustained  this  alarming 
complication.  General  Winfield  Scott  was  quietly  or 
dered  to  Charleston,  for  the  purpose,  as  the  President 
confidentially  informed  the  collector,  "of  superintend 
ing  the  safety  of  the  ports  of  the  United  States  in  that 
vicinity."  Other  changes  were  made  in  the  disposition 


302  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

of  naval  and  military  forces,  designed  to  enable  the 
President  to  act  with  swift  efficiency  if  there  should  be 
occasion  to  act.  If  ever  a  man  was  resolved  to  accom 
plish  a  purpose,  General  Jackson  was  resolved  on  this 
occasion  to  preserve  intact  the  authority  with  which  he 
had  been  intrusted.  Nor  can  any  language  do  justice  to 
the  fury  of  his  contemptuous  wrath  against  the  author 
and  fomenter  of  all  this  trouble. 

Congress  met  on  the  3d  of  December,  1832.  Mr. 
Calhoun  had  not  reached  Washington,  and  his  intention 
to  resign  the  vice-presidency  was  not  known  there.  The 
message  reveals  few  traces  of  the  loud  and  threatening 
contentions  amid  which  it  was  produced.  The  troubles 
in  South  Carolina  were  dismissed  in  a  single  paragraph, 
which  expressed  a  hope  of  a  speedy  adjustment  of  the 
difficulty. 

While  Congress  was  listening  to  this  calm  and  sug 
gestive  message,  the  President  was  absorbed  in  the  prep 
aration  of  another  document,  and  one  of  a  very  different 
description.  A  pamphlet  containing  the  proceedings  of 
the  South  Carolina  Convention  reached  him  on  one  of  the 
last  days  of  November.  It  moved  him  profoundly;  for 
this  fiery  spirit  loved  his  country  as  few  men  have  loved 
it.  Though  he  regarded  those  proceedings  as  the  fruit 
of  John  C.  Calhoun's  ambition  and  resentment,  he  rose 
on  this  occasion  above  personal  considerations,  and  con 
ducted  himself  with  that  union  of  daring  and  prudence 
which  had  given  him  such  signal  success  in  war.  He 
went  to  his  office  alone,  and  began  to  dash  off  page  after 
page  of  the  memorable  proclamation  which  was  soon  to 
electrify  the  country.  He  wrote  with  that  great  steel 
pen  of  his,  and  with  such  rapidity,  that  he  was  obliged 
to  scatter  the  written  pages  all  over  the  table  to  let  them 
dry.  A  gentleman  who  came  in  when  the  President  had 
written  fifteen  or  twenty  pages,  observed  that  three  of 


THE   SECOND   TERM. 


303 


them  were  glistening  with  wet  ink  at  the  same  moment. 
The  warmth,  the  glow,  the  passion,  the  eloquence  of 
that  proclamation  were  produced  then  and  there  by  the 
President's  own  hand. 

To  these  pages  were  added  many  more  of  notes  and 
memoranda  which  had  been  accumulating  in  the  Presi 
dential  hat  for  some  weeks,  and  the  whole  collection  was 
then  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Livingston,  the  Secre 
tary  of  State,  who  was  requested  to  draw  up  the  proc 
lamation  in  proper  form.  Major  Lewis  writes  to  me: 
"  Mr.  Livingston  took  the  papers  to  his  office,  and  in 
the  course  of  three  or  four  days  brought  the  proclama 
tion  to  the  general,  and  left  it  for  his  examination.  After 
reading  it,  he  came  into  my  room  and  remarked  that  Mr. 
Livingston  had  not  correctly  understood  his  notes;  there 
were  portions  of  the  draft,  he  added,  which  were  not  in 
accordance  with  his  views,  and  must  be  altered.  He 
then  sent  his  messenger  for  Mr.  Livingston,  and  pointed 
out  to  him  the  passages  which  did  not  represent  his  views, 
and  requested  him  to  take  it  back  with  him  and  make 
the  alterations  he  had  suggested.  This  was  done,  and, 
the  second  draft  being  satisfactory,  he  ordered  it  to  be 
published.  I  will  add  that,  before  the  proclamation  was 
sent  to  press  to  be  published,  I  took  the  liberty  of  sug 
gesting  to  the  general  whether  it  would  not  be  best  to 
leave  out  that  portion  to  which,  I  was  sure,  the  State- 
rights  party  would  particularly  object.  He  refused. 
" '  Those  are  my  views,'  said  he  with  great  decision  of 
manner,  'and  I  will  not  change  them  nor  strike  them 
out.' " 

This  celebrated  paper  was  dated  December  n,  1832. 
The  word  proclamation  does  not  describe  it.  It  reads 
more  like  the  last  appeal  of  a  sorrowing  but  resolute 
father  to  wayward,  misguided  sons.  Argument,  warn 
ing,  and  entreaty  were  blended  in  its  composition.  It 


304  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

began  by  calmly  refuting,  one  by  one,  the  leading  posi 
tions  of  the  nullifiers.  The  right  to  annul  and  the  right 
to  secede,  as  claimed  by  them,  were  shown  to  be  incom 
patible  with  the  fundamental  idea  and  main  object  of 
the  Constitution,  which  was  "  to  form  a  more  perfect 
Union."  That  the  tariff  act  complained  of  did  operate 
unequally  was  granted,  but  so  did  every  revenue  law 
that  had  ever  been  or  could  ever  be  passed.  The  right 
of  a  State  to  secede  was  strongly  denied.  "  To  say  that 
any  State  may  at  pleasure  secede  from  the  Union,  is  to 
say  that  the  United  States  are  not  a  nation."  The  in 
dividual  States  are  not  completely  sovereign,  for  they 
voluntarily  resigned  part  of  their  sovereignty.  "  How 
can  that  State  be  said  to  be  sovereign  and  independent 
whose  citizens  owe  obedience  to  laws  not  made  by  it, 
and  whose  magistrates  are  sworn  to  disregard  those  laws, 
when  they  come  in  conflict  with  those  passed  by  an 
other?" 

Finally,  the  people  of  South  Carolina  were  distinctly 
given  to  understand  that,  in  case  any  forcible  resistance 
to  the  laws  were  attempted  by  them,  the  attempt  would 
be  resisted  by  the  combined  power  and  resources  of  the 
other  States.  For  one  word,  however,  of  this  kind,  there 
were  a  hundred  of  entreaty.  "  Fellow-citizens  of  my 
native  State,"  exclaimed  the  President,  "let  me  not  only 
admonish  you,  as  the  First  Magistrate  of  our  common 
country,  not  to  incur  the  penalty  of  its  laws,  but  use 
the  influence  that  a  father  would  over  his  children  whom 
he  saw  rushing  to  certain  ruin.  In  that  paternal  lan 
guage,  with  that  paternal  feeling,  let  me  tell  you,  my 
countrymen,  that  you  are  deluded  by  men  who  are  either 
deceived  themselves  or  wish  to  deceive  you.'* 

Such  were  the  tone  and  manner  of  this  celebrated 
proclamation.  It  was  clear  in  statement,  forcible  in 
argument,  vigorous  in  style,  and  glowing  with  the  fire  of 


THE   SECOND  TERM.  305 

a  genuine  and  enlightened  patriotism.  The  proclama 
tion  was  received  at  the  North  with  an  enthusiasm  that 
seemed  unanimous,  and  was  nearly  so.  The  opposition 
press  bestowed  the  warmest  encomiums  upon  it.  Three 
days  after  its  appearance  in  the  newspapers  of  New 
York,  an  immense  meeting  was  held  in  the  Park  for  the 
purpose  of  stamping  it  with  metropolitan  approval. 
Faneuil  Hall,  in  Boston,  was  quick  in  responding  to  it, 
and  there  were  Union  meetings  in  every  large  town  of 
the  Northern  States.  In  Tennessee,  North  Carolina, 
Virginia,  Maryland,  Delaware,  Missouri,  Louisiana,  and 
Kentucky  the  proclamation  was  generally  approved  as 
an  act,  though  its  extreme  Federal  positions  found  many 
opponents. 

In  South  Carolina,  however,  it  did  but  inflame  the 
prevailing  excitement.  The  Legislature  of  that  State, 
being  still  in  session,  immediately  passed  the  following 
resolution  : 

"  Whereas,  The  President  of  the  United  States  has 
issued  his  proclamation,  denouncing  the  proceedings  of 
this  State,  calling  upon  the  citizens  thereof  to  renounce 
their  primary  allegiance,  and  threatening  them  with  mili 
tary  coercion,  unwarranted  by  the  Constitution  and 
utterly  inconsistent  with  the  existence  of  a  free  State : 
Be  it,  therefore, 

"Resolved,  That  his  Excellency  the  Governor  be  re 
quested  forthwith  to  issue  his  proclamation,  warning 
the  good  people  of  this  State  against  the  attempt  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States  to  seduce  them  from 
their  allegiance,  exhorting  them  to  disregard  his  vain 
menaces,  and  to  be  prepared  to  sustain  the  dignity  and 
protect  the  liberty  of  the  State  against  the  arbitrary 
measures  proposed  by  the  President." 

Governor  Hayne  issued  his  proclamation  according 
ly,  and  a  most  pugnacious  document  it  was.  When  the 


306  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

proclamation  reached  Washington,  the  President  forth 
with  replied  to  it  by  asking  Congress  for  an  increase  of 
powers  adequate  to  the  impending  collision.  The  mes 
sage  in  which  he  made  this  request,  dated  January  16, 
1833,  gave  a  brief  history  of  events  in  South  Carolina 
and  of  the  measures  hitherto  adopted  by  the  Admin 
istration ;  repeated  the  arguments  of  the  recent  procla 
mation  and  added  others ;  stated  the  legal  points 
involved,  and  asked  of  Congress  such  an  increase  of 
executive  powers  as  would  enable  the  Government,  if 
necessary,  to  close  ports  of  entry,  remove  threatened 
custom-houses,  detain  vessels,  and  protect  from  State 
prosecution  such  citizens  of  South  Carolina  as  should 
choose  or  be  compelled  to  pay  the  obnoxious  duties. 

Mr.  Calhoun  was  in  his  place  in  the  Senate-chamber 
when  this  message  was  read.  He  had  arrived  two  weeks 
before,  after  a  journey  which  one  of  his  biographers 
compares  to  that  of  Luther  to  the  Diet  of  Worms.  He 
met  averted  faces  and  estranged  friends  everywhere  on 
his  route,  we  are  told  ;  and  only  now  and  then  some 
daring  man  found  courage  to  whisper  in  his  ear,  "If  you 
are  sincere,  and  are  sure  of  your  cause,  go  on,  in  God's 
name,  and  fear  nothing."  Washington  was  curious  to 
know,  we  are  further  assured,  what  the  arch-nullifier 
would  do  when  the  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  proposed  to  him.  "  The  floor  of  the 
Senate-chamber  and  the  galleries  were  thronged  with 
spectators.  They  saw  him  take  the  oath  with  a  solem 
nity  and  dignity  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  and  then 
calmly  seat  himself  on  the  right  of  the  chair,  among  his 
old  political  friends,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  now  ar 
rayed  against  him." 

After  the  President's  message  had  been  read,  Mr.  Cal 
houn  rose  to  vindicate  himself  and  his  State,  which  he 
did  with  that  singular  blending  of  subtlety  and  force, 


THE   SECOND   TERM. 


307 


truth  and  sophistry,  which  characterized  his  later  efforts. 
He  declared  himself  still  devoted  to  the  Union,  and  said 
that,  if  the  Government  were  restored  to  the  principles 
of  1798,  he  would  be  the  last  man  in  the  country  to  ques 
tion  its  authority. 

A  bill  conceding  to  the  President  the  additional 
powers  requested  in  his  message  of  January  i6th  was 
promptly  reported  and  finally  passed.  It  was  nicknamed, 
at  the  time,  the  "Force  Bill,"  and  was  debated  with  the 
heat  and  acrimony  which  might  have  been  expected.  As 
other  measures  of  Congress  rendered  this  bill  unneces 
sary,  and  it  had  no  practical  effect  whatever,  we  need 
not  dwell  upon  its  provisions  nor  review  the  debates 
upon  it.  It  passed,  by  majorities  unusually  large,  late  in 
February. 

The  ist  of  February,  the  dreaded  day  which  was  to 
be  the  first  of  a  fratricidal  war,  had  gone  by,  and  yet  no 
hostile  and  no  nullifying  act  had  been  done  in  South 
Carolina.  How  was  this  ?  Did  those  warlike  words 
mean  nothing?  Was  South  Carolina  repentant?  It  is 
asserted  by  the  old  Jacksonians  that  one  citizen  of 
South  Carolina  was  exceedingly  frightened  as  the  ist  of 
February  drew  near,  namely — John  C.  Calhoun.  The 
President  was  resolved,  and  avowed  his  resolve,  that  the 
hour  which  brought  the  news  of  one  act  of  violence  on 
the  part  of  the  nullifiers,  should  find  Mr.  Calhoun  a  pris 
oner  of  state  upon  a  charge  of  high  treason.  And  not 
Calhoun  only,  but  every  member  of  Congress  from  South 
Carolina  who  had  taken  part  in  the  proceedings  which 
had  caused  the  conflict  between  South  Carolina  and  the 
General  Government.  Whether  this  intention  of  the 
President  had  any  effect  upon  the  course  of  events,  we 
can  not  know.  It  came  to  pass,  however,  that,  a  few 
days  before  the  ist  of  February,  a  meeting  of  the  lead 
ing  nullifiers  was  held  in  Charleston,  who  passed  resolu- 


308  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

tions  to  this  effect :  That,  inasmuch  as  measures  were 
then  pending  in  Congress  which  contemplated  the  re 
duction  of  duties  demanded  by  South  Carolina,  the 
nullification  of  the  existing  revenue  laws  should  be  post 
poned  until  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress ;  when 
the  convention  would  reassemble,  and  take  into  con 
sideration  whatever  revenue  measures  may  have  been 
passed  by  Congress.  The  session  of  1833  being  the 
"  short  "  session,  ending  necessarily  on  the  4th  of  March, 
the  Union  was  respited  thirty  days  by  the  Charleston 
meeting. 

Which  of  these  two  bills  was  most  in  accordance  with 
Mr.  Calhoun's  new  opinions  ?  Which  of  them  could  he 
most  consistently  have  supported  ?  Not  Mr.  Clay's. 
Yet  it  was  Mr.  Clay's  bill  that  he  did  support  and  vote 
for ;  and  Mr.  Clay's  bill  was  carried  by  the  aid  of  his 
support  and  vote. 

Mr.  Calhoun  left  Washington,  and  journeyed  home 
ward  post-haste,  after  Congress  adjourned.  Traveling 
night  and  day  by  the  most  rapid  public  conveyances,  he 
succeeded  in  reaching  Columbia  in  time  to  meet  the 
convention  before  they  had  taken  any  additional  steps. 
Some  of  the  more  fiery  and  ardent  members  were  dis 
posed  to  complain  of  the  Compromise  Act,  as  being  only 
a  halfway,  temporizing  measure ;  but  when  his  explana 
tions  were  made,  all  felt  satisfied,  and  the  convention 
cordially  approved  of  his  course.  The  nullification  or 
dinance  was  repealed,  and  the  two  parties  in  the  State 
abandoned  their  organizations  and  agreed  to  forget  all 
their  past  differences.  So  the  storm  blew  over. 

One  remarkable  result  of  the  pacification  was  that  it 
strengthened  the  position  of  the  leading  men  of  both 
parties.  The  course  was  cleared  for  Mr.  Van  Buren. 
The  popularity  of  the  President  reached  its  highest 
point.  Mr.  Calhoun  was  rescued  from  peril,  and  a  de- 


THE   SECOND  TERM.  309 

gree  of  his  former  prestige  was  restored  to  him.  The 
collectors  of  political  pamphlets  will  discover  that,  as 
late  as  1843,  he  still  had  hopes  of  reaching  the  presi 
dency  by  uniting  the  South  in  his  support  and  adding  to 
the  united  South  Pennsylvania.  With  too  much  truth 
he  claimed,  in  subsequent  debates,  that  it  was  the  hostile 
attitude  of  South  Carolina  which  alone  had  enabled  Mr. 
Clay  to  carry  his  compromise. 

Mr.  Clay,  as  some  readers  may  remember,  won  great 
glory  at  the  North  by  his  course  during  the  session  of 
1833.  He  was  received  in  New  York  and  New  England, 
this  year,  with  that  enthusiasm  which  his  presence  in  the 
manufacturing  States  ever  after  inspired.  The  warmth 
of  his  reception  consoled  him  for  his  late  defeat  at  the 
polls,  and  gave  new  hopes  to  his  friends.  But  the  Colos 
sus  of  the  session  was  Daniel  Webster,  well  named  then, 
the  expounder  of  the  Constitution.  In  supporting  the 
Administration  in  all  its  anti-nullification  measures,  he 
displayed  his  peculiar  powers  to  the  greatest  advantage. 
The  subject  of  debate  was  the  one  of  all  others  the  most 
congenial  to  him,  and  he  rendered  services  then  to  his 
country  to  which  his  country  in  1860  recurred  with  grati 
tude.  "  Nullification  kept  me  out  of  the  Supreme  Court 
all  last  winter,"  he  says  in  one  of  his  letters  in  1833. 
He  mentions,  also,  that  the  President  sent  his  own  car 
riage  to  convey  him  to  the  Capitol  on  one  important  oc 
casion.  After  the  adjournment  he  visited  the  great 
WTest,  where  he  was  welcomed  with  equal  warmth  by  the 
friends  and  the  opponents  of  the  Administration. 

When  all  was  over,  General  Jackson  wrote  that  letter 
to  the  Rev.  A.  J.  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  which  later 
events  rendered  the  most  celebrated  of  all  his  writings. 
May  i,  1833,  is  the  date  of  this  famous  production: 

"  I  have  had,"  wrote  the  President,  "  a  laborious  task 
here,  but  nullification  is  dead,  and  its  actors  and  courtiers 

21 


3  io  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

will  only  be  remembered  by  the  people  to  be  execrated 
for  their  wicked  designs  to  sever  and  destroy  the  only 
good  Government  on  the  globe,  and  that  prosperity  and 
happiness  we  enjoy  over  every  other  portion  of  the 
world.  Hainan's  gallows  ought  to  be  the  fate  of  all 
such  ambitious  men  who  would  involve  the  country  in  a 
civil  war,  and  all  the  evils  in  its  train,  that  they  might 
reign  and  ride  on  its  whirlwinds  and  direct  the  storm. 
The  free  people  of  the  United  States  have  spoken,  and 
consigned  these  wicked  demagogues  to  their  proper 
doom.  Take  care  of  your  nullifiers  you  have  among 
you.  Let  them  meet  the  indignant  frowns  of  every  man 
who  loves  his  country.  The  tariff,  it  is  now  well  known, 
was  a  mere  pretext.  Its  burdens  were  on  your  coarse 
woolens;  by  the  law  of  July,  1832,  coarse  woolens  was 
reduced  to  five  per  cent  for  the  benefit  of  the  South. 
Mr.  Clay's  bill  takes  it  up,  and  closes  it  with  woolens  at 
fifty  per  cent,  reduces  it  gradually  down  to  twenty  per 
cent,  and  there  it  is  to  remain,  and  Mr.  Calhoun  and  all 
the  nullifiers  agree  to  the  principle.  The  cash  duty  and 
home  valuation  will  be  equal  to  fifteen  per  cent  more, 
and  after  the  year  1842  you  will  pay  on  coarse  woolens 
thirty-five  per  cent.  If  this  is  not  protection,  I  can  not 
understand  it.  Therefore,  the  tariff  was  only  the  pre 
text,  and  disunion  and  a  Southern  confederacy  the  real 
object.  The  next  pretext  will  be  the  negro  or  the  slavery 
question" 

Not  content  to  let  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
peacefully  die  upon  the  expiration  of  its  charter  in  1836, 
the  President  resolved  in  1833  to  remove  from  it  the 
public  money,  and  thus  sever  its  connection  with  the 
Government.  The  sub-Treasury  had  not  yet  been 
thought  of,  or  only  thought  of.  The  complete  divorce 
which  that  simple  expedient  effected  between  bank  and 
State  came  too  late  to  save  the  country  from  four  years 


THE   SECOND  TERM.  3!! 

of  most  disastrous  "experiment."  The  plan  proposed  in 
1833  was,  instead  of  depositing  the  public  money  in  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States  and  its  twenty-five  branches, 
to  deposit  it  in  a  similar  number  of  State  banks.  We 
can  not  wonder  that  every  member  of  the  Cabinet  ex 
cept  two,  besides  some  important  members  of  the 
kitchen  cabinet  and  a  large  majority  of  the  President's 
best  friends,  opposed  it  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 

The  measure  occurred  to  the  President  while  he  was 
conversing,  one  day  early  in  the  year  1833,  with  Mr. 
Blair,  of  the  Globe,  who  hated  the  bank  only  less  than 
the  President  himself  did.  "  Biddle,"  said  Mr.  Blair, 
"  is  actually  using  the  people's  money  to  frustrate  the 
people's  will.  He  is  using  the  money  of  the  Government 
for  the  purpose  of  breaking  down  the  Government.  If 
he  had  not  the  public  money  he  could  not  do  it." 

The  President  said,  in  his  most  vehement  manner: 
"  He  sha'n't  have  the  public  money  !  I'll  remove  the  de 
posits!  Blair,  talk  with  our  friends  about  this,  and  let 
me  know  what  they  think  of  it." 

The  deposits  were  removed  accordingly,  and  the  pub 
lic  money  was  placed  in  the  State  banks  all  over  the 
country.  These  State  banks,  as  a  Senator  remarked, 
"soon  began  to  feel  their  oats."  The  expression  is 
homely,  but  not  inapt.  The  extraordinary  increase  in 
the  public  revenue  during  the  next  two  years  added  im 
mense  sums  to  the  available  capital  of  those  banks,  and 
gave  a  new  and  undue  importance  to  the  business  of 
banking.  Banks  sprang  into  existence  like  mushrooms 
in  a  night.  The  pet  banks  seemed  compelled  to  extend 
their  business,  or  lose  the  advantage  of  their  connec 
tion  with  the  Government.  The  great  bank  felt  itself 
obliged  to  expand,  or  be  submerged  in  the  general  infla 
tion.  It  expanded  twelve  millions  during  the  next  two 
years.  All  the  other  banks  expanded,  and  all  men  ex- 


312  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

panded,  and  all  things  expanded.  Many  causes  con 
spired  to  produce  the  unexampled,  the  disastrous,  the 
demoralizing  inflation  of  1835  and  1836;  but  I  do  not 
see  any  escape  from  the  conclusion  that  the  inciting 
cause  was  the  vast  amounts  of  public  treasure  that,  dur 
ing  those  years,  were  u  lying  about  loose  "  in  the  deposit 
banks.  General  Jackson  desired  a  currency  of  gold  and 
silver.  Never  were  such  floods  of  paper  money  emitted 
as  during  the  continuance  of  his  own  fiscal  system.  He 
wished  to  reduce  the  number  and  the  importance  of 
banks,  bankers,  brokers,  and  speculators.  The  years 
succeeding  the  transfer  of  the  deposits  were  the  golden 
biennium  of  just  those  classes.  In  a  word,  his  system, 
as  far  as  my  acquaintance  with  such  matters  enables  me 
to  judge,  worked  ill  at  every  moment  of  its  operation, 
and  upon  every  interest  of  business  and  morality.  To 
it,  more  than  to  all  other  causes  combined,  we  owe  the 
inflation  of  1835  and  1836,  the  universal  ruin  of  1837, 
and  the  dreary  and  hopeless  depression  of  the  five  years 
following. 

In  November,  1836,  General  Jackson  beheld  the  con 
summation  of  his  most  cherished  hopes  in  the  election 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren  to  the  presidency. 

Signs  of  coming  revulsion  in  the  world  of  business 
were  so  numerous  and  so  palpable  during  this  year  that 
it  is  wonderful  so  few  observed  them.  The  short  crops 
of  1836  and  the  paper  inflation  had  raised  the  price  of 
the  necessaries  of  life  to  a  point  they  had  never  reached 
before,  and  have  never  reached  since.  Flour  was  sold 
in  lots,  at  fifteen  dollars  a  barrel ;  in  single  barrels,  at 
sixteen ;  in  smaller  quantities,  at  eighteen.  The  grow 
ing  scarcity  of  money  had  already  compelled  manufac 
turers  to  dismiss  many  of  their  workmen ;  and  thus,  at 
a  moment  when  financiers  cherished  the  delusion  that 
the  country  was  prosperous  beyond  all  previous  example, 


THE   SECOND   TERM. 


313 


large  numbers  of   worthy  mechanics  and  seamstresses 
were  suffering  from  want. 

To  the  last  day  of  his  residence  in  the  presidential 
mansion  General  Jackson  continued  to  receive  proofs 
that  he  was  still  the  idol  of  the  people.  The  eloquence 
of  the  opposition  had  not  availed  to  lessen  his  general 
popularity  in  the  least  degree.  We  read  of  one  enthu 
siastic  Jacksonian  conveying  to  Washington,  from  New 
York,  with  banners  and  bands  of  music,  a  prodigious 
cheese  as  a  present  to  the  retiring  chief.  The  cheese 
was  four  feet  in  diameter,  two  feet  thick,  and  weighed 
fourteen  hundred  pounds — twice  as  large,  said  the  Globe, 
as  the  great  cheese  given  to  Mr.  Jefferson  on  a  similar 
occasion.  The  President,  after  giving  away  large  masses 
of  his  cheese  to  his  friends,  found  that  he  had  still  more 
cheese  than  he  could  consume.  At  his  last  public  recep 
tion  he  caused  a  piece  of  the  cheese  to  be  presented  to 
all  who  chose  to  receive  it — an  operation  that  filled  the 
White  House  with  an  odor  that  is  pleasant  only  when 
there  is  not  too  much  of  it.  Another  ardent  lover  of  the 
President  gave  him  a  light  wagon  composed  entirely  of 
hickory  sticks  with  the  bark  upon  them.  "Another  pre 
sented  an  elegant  phaeton  made  of  the  wood  of  the  old 
frigate  Constitution.  The  hickory  wagon  the  general 
left  in  Washington,  as  a  memento  to  his  successor.  The 
Constitutional  phaeton  he  took  with  him  to  the  Hermit 
age,  where  I  saw  it,  faded  and  dilapidated,  in  1858. 

The  farewell  address  of  the  retiring  President  was 
little  more  than  a  r/sumJ  of  the  doctrines  of  his  eight , 
annual  messages.  /The  priceless  value  of  the  Union ; 
the  danger  to  it  01  sectional  agitation ;  the  evils  of  a 
splendid  and  powerful  government ;  the  safety  and  ad 
vantages  of  plain  and  inexpensive  institutions ;  the 
perils  of  a  surplus  revenue;  the  injustice  of  a  high 
tariff ;  the  unconstitutionality  of  that  system  of  internal 


314  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

'improvements  which  the  Maysville  veto  had  checked; 
the  curse  of  paper  money ;  the  extreme  desirableness  of 
a  currency  of  gold  and  silver — were  the  leading  topics 
upon  which  the  President  descanted.  "  My  own  race," 
said  he,  "  is  nearly  run  ;  advanced  age  and  failing  health 
warn  me  that  before  long  I  must  pass  beyond  the  reach 
of  human  events,  and  cease  to  feel  the  vicissitudes  of 
human  affairs.  I  thank  God  that  my  life  has  been  spent 
in  a  land  of  liberty,  and  that  he  has  given  me  a  heart  to 
love  my  country  with  the  affection  of  a  son.  And,  filled 
with  gratitude  for  your  constant  and  unwavering  kind 
ness,  Ibid^y_ou_ajast  and  affectionate  farewell." 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

IN    RETIREMENT. 

GENERAL  JACKSON  was  seventy  years  of  age  when 
he  retired  from  the  presidency.  He  was  a  very  infirm 
old  man,  seldom  free  from  pain  for  an  hour,  never  for  a 
day.  Possessed  of  a  most  beautiful  and  productive  farm 
and  a  hundred  and  fifty  negroes,  he  yet  felt  himself  to 
be  a  poor  man  on  his  return  to  the  Hermitage.  "  I  re 
turned  home,"  he  writes  to  Mr.  Trist,  "  with  just  ninety 
dollars  in  money,  having  expended  all  my  salary,  and 
most  of  the  proceeds  of  my  cotton  crop ;  found  every 
thing  out  of  repair ;  corn,  and  everything  else  for  the 
use  of  my  farm,  to  buy ;  having  but  one  tract  of  land 
besides  my  homestead,  which  I  have  sold,  and  which  has 
enabled  me  to  begin  the  new  year  (1838)  clear  of  debt, 
relying  on  our  industry  and  economy  to  yield  us  a  sup 
port,  trusting  to  a  kind  Providence  for  good  seasons 
and  a  prosperous  crop." 

During  the  next  few  years  he  lived  the  life  of  a 
planter,  carefully  directing  the  operations  of  his  farm, 
enjoying  the  society  of  his  adopted  son  and  his  amiable 
and  estimable  wife.  They  and  their  children  were  the 
solace  of  his  old  age. 

The  commercial  disasters  of  1837  and  the  depression 
that  succeeded  had  not  seriously  inconvenienced  General 
Jackson,  with  his  magnificent  farm  and  his  hundred  and 
fifty  negroes.  He  repeatedly  expressed  the  opinion  that 
no  one  failed  in  that  great  revulsion  who  ought  not  to 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 

have  failed.  Not  the  faintest  suspicion  that  any  measure 
of  his  own  had  anything  to  do  with  it  ever  found  lodg 
ment  in  his  mind.  He  laid  all  the  blame  upon  Biddle, 
paper  money,  and  speculation.  In  1842,  when  business 
men  began  once  more  to  hope  for  prosperous  seasons, 
and  the  country  awoke  from  its  long  lethargy,  General 
Jackson  became  an  anxious  and  embarrassed  man  through 
the  misfortunes  of  his  son.  Money  was  not  to  be  bor 
rowed  in  the  Western  country  even  then,  except  at  an 
exorbitant  interest.  He  applied,  in  these  circumstances, 
to  his  fast  friend,  Mr.  Blair,  of  the  Globe,  who  was  then 
a  man  of  fortune.  Ten  thousand  dollars  was  the  sum 
which  the  general  deemed  sufficient  for  his  relief.  Mr. 
Blair  not  only  resolved  on  the  instant  to  lend  the  money, 
but  to  lend  it  on  the  general's  personal  security,  and  to 
make  the  loan  as  closely  resemble  a  gift  as  the  general's 
delicacy  would  permit  it  to  be.  Mr.  Rives  desired  to 
share  the  pleasure  of  accommodating  General  Jackson, 
and  the  loan  was  therefore  made  in  the  name  of  Blair 
and  Rives.  Upon  reading  Mr.  Blair's  reply  to  his  appli 
cation,  the  old  man  burst  into  tears.  He  handed  the 
letter  to  his  daughter,  and  she,  too,  was  melted  by  the 
delicate  generosity  which  it  revealed.  General  Jackson, 
however,  would  accept  the  money  only  on  conditions 
which  secured  his  friends  against  the  possibility  of  loss. 
Not  long  after  these  interesting  events,  further  relief 
was  afforded  General  Jackson  by  the  refunding  of  the 
fine  which  he  had  paid  at  New  Orleans,  in  1815,  for  the 
arrest  of  Judge  Hall,  and  for  refusing  to  obey  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  issued  by  him.  The  fine  was  originally 
one  thousand  dollars,  but  the  accumulated  interest 
swelled  the  amount  to  twenty-seven  hundred.  Senator 
Linn,  of  Missouri,  introduced  the  bill  for  refunding  the 
money,  and  gave  it  an  earnest  and  persevering  support. 
In  the  House  the  measure  was  strenuously  supported  by 


IN   RETIREMENT. 


317 


Mr.  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  and  Mr.  Charles  J. 
Ingersoll,  of  Pennsylvania,  to  both  of  whom  General 
Jackson  expressed  his  gratitude  in  the  warmest  terms. 
The  bill  was  passed  in  the  Senate  by  a  party  vote  of 
twenty-eight  to  twenty — Mr.  Calhoun  voting  with  the 
friends  of  the  ex-President;  in  the  House,  by  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty-eight  to  twenty-eight. 

The  religious  tendencies  of  General  Jackson  were 
strengthened  by  the  example  of  his  wife,  and  much  more 
by  her  affecting  death  at  the  moment  when  he  needed 
her  most.  He  gave  her  his  solemn  promise  to  join  the 
church  as  soon  as  he  had  done  with  politics,  and  the 
letters  which  he  wrote  during  his  presidency  to  members 
of  his  own  family  abound  in  religious  expressions.  The 
promise  which  he  made  to  his  wife  he  remembered,  but 
did  not  strictly  keep.  In  August,  1838,  he  wrote  to  one 
who  had  addressed  him  on  the  subject :  "  I  would  long 
since  have  made  this  solemn  public  dedication  to  Al 
mighty  God,  but  knowing  the  wickedness  of  this  world, 
and  how  prone  men  are  to  evil,  that  the  scoffer  of  re 
ligion  would  have  cried  out,  '  Hypocrisy  !  he  has  joined 
the  church  for  political  effect,'  I  thought  it  best  to  post 
pone  this  public  act  until  my  retirement  to  the  shades  of 
private  life,  when  no  false  imputation  could  be  made 
that  might  be  injurious  to  religion."  He  passed  two  or 
three  years,  however,  "  in  the  shades  of  private  life  " 
before  he  performed  the  act  referred  to  in  this  letter. 

In  1842  he  fulfilled  the  promise  he  had  made  to  his 
wife,  and  joined  the  Presbyterian  Church,  Rev.  Dr. 
Edgar,  of  Nashville,  performing  the  ceremony  at  the 
little  brick  edifice  on  the  Hermitage  farm.  Dr.  Edgar 
informed  me  that  the  usual  questions  respecting  doc 
trine  and  experience  were  satisfactorily  answered  by  the 
candidate.  Then  there  was  a  pause  in  the  conversation. 
The  clergyman  said,  at  length : 


318  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

"  General,  there  is  one  more  question  which  it  is  my 
duty  to  ask  you.  Can  you  forgive  all  your  enemies  ?" 

The  question  was  evidently  unexpected,  and  the 
candidate  was  silent  for  a  while. 

"  My  political  enemies,"  said  he,  "  I  can  freely  for 
give  ;  but  as  for  those  who  abused  me  when  I  was  serv 
ing  my  country  in  the  field,  and  those  who  attacked  me 
for  serving  my  country — doctor,  that  is  a  different 
case." 

The  doctor  assured  him  that  it  was  not.  Christianity, 
he  said,  forbade  the  indulgence  of  enmity  absolutely 
and  in  all  cases.  No  man  could  be  received  into  a 
Christian  church  who  did  not  cast  out  of  his  heart  every 
feeling  of  that  nature.  It  was  a  condition  that  was 
fundamental  and  indispensable.  After  a  considerable 
pause  the  candidate  said  that  he  thought  he  could  for 
give  all  who  had  injured  him,  even  those  who  had  as 
sailed  him  for  what  he  had  done  for  his  country  in  the 
field. 

From  this  time  to  the  end  of  his  life  General  Jack 
son  spent  most  of  his  leisure  hours  in  reading  the  Bible, 
biblical  commentaries,  and  the  hymn-book,  which  last 
he  always  pronounced  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  hime- 
book.  The  work  known  as  "  Scott's  Bible "  was  his 
chief  delight ;  he  read  it  through  twice  before  his  death. 
Nightly  he  read  prayers  in  the  presence  of  his  family 
and  household  servants. 

Great  was  the  joy  of  General  Jackson  at  the  election 
of  Mr.  James  K.  Polk  in  1844.  In  a  field  adjoining  the 
Hermitage  he  entertained  two  hundred  guests  at  dinner, 
in  honor  of  the  event.  His  anxiety,  however,  on  the 
subject  of  the  annexation  of  Texas  appeared  to  increase 
rather  than  diminish  after  the  election.  On  the  first 
day  of  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  wrote  a  long  letter 
to  his  friend  Blair,  urging  him  to  use  all  his  influence 


IN   RETIREMENT. 


319 


to   induce   Congress  to  act   with   promptitude  in   the 
matter. 

The  well-known  correspondence  between  Commo 
dore  Elliot  and  General  Jackson,  with  regard  to  the 
sarcophagus  of  the  Roman  emperor,  occurred  in  the 
spring  of  the  last  year  of  the  general's  life.  "Last 
night,"  wrote  the  blunt  sailor  [March  18,  1845],  "I 
made  something  of  a  speech  at  the  National  Institute 
(Washington,  D.  C),  and  have  offered  for  their  accept 
ance  the  sarcophagus  which  I  obtained  in  Palestine, 
brought  home  in  the  Constitution,  and  believed  to  con 
tain  the  remains  of  the  Roman  Emperor  Alexander 
Severus,  with  the  suggestion  that  it  might  be  ten 
dered  you  for  your  final  resting-place.  I  pray  you, 
general,  to  live  on  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord ;  dying  the 
death  of  a  Roman  soldier ;  an  emperor's  coffin  awaits 
you." 

The  general  replied:  "With  the  warmest  sensations 
that  can  inspire  a  grateful  heart,  I  must  decline  accept 
ing  the  honor  intended  to  be  bestowed.  I  can  not  con 
sent  that  my  mortal  body  shall  be  laid  in  a  repository 
prepared  for  an  emperor  or  a  king.  My  republican  feel 
ings  and  principles  forbid  it;  the  simplicity  of  our  sys 
tem  of  government  forbids  it;  every  monument  erected 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  our  heroes  and  statesmen 
ought  to  bear  evidence  of  the  economy  and  simplicity 
of  our  republican  institutions,  and  the  plainness  of  our 
republican  citizens,  who  are  the  sovereigns  of  our 
glorious  Union,  and  whose  virtue  is  to  perpetuate  it. 
True  virtue  can  not  exist  where  pomp  and  parade  are 
the  governing  passions;  it  can  only  dwell  with  the 
people — the  great  laboring  and  producing  classes  that 
form  the  bone  and  sinew  of  our  confederacy.  I  have 
prepared  an  humble  depository  for  my  mortal  body 
beside  that  wherein  lies  my  beloved  wife,  where,  with- 


320  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

out  any  pomp  or  parade,  I  have  requested,  when  my 
God  calls  me  to  sleep  with  my  fathers,  to  be  laid." 

During  the  first  six  years  after  his  retirement  from 
the  presidency,  General  Jackson's  health  was  not  much 
worse  than  it  had  usually  been  in  Washington.  Every 
attack  of  bleeding  at  the  lungs,  however,  left  him  a 
little  weaker  than  he  had  ever  been  before,  and  his  re 
covery  was  slower  and  less  complete.  During  the  last 
two  years  of  his  life  he  could  never  be  said  to  have 
rallied  from  these  attacks,  but  remained  always  very 
weak,  and  knew  few  intervals,  and  those  very  short,  of 
relief  from  pain.  A  cough  tormented  him  day  and 
night.  He  had  all  the  symptoms  of  consumption.  One 
lung  was  consumed  entirely,  and  the  other  was  dis 
eased.  Six  months  before  his  death,  certain  dropsical 
symptoms,  which  had  threatened  him  for  years,  were 
painfully  developed.  The  patience  which  he  displayed 
during  those  years  of  dissolution  sometimes  approached 
the  sublime.  No  anguish,  however  severe,  however  pro 
tracted,  ever  wrung  from  this  most  irascible  of  men  a 
fretful  or  a  complaining  word. 

He  saw  the  light  of  Sunday  morning — June  8th — 
a  still,  brilliant,  hot  day.  He  had  been  worse  the  day 
before,  and  Dr.  Esselman  had  remained  all  night  at  the 
Hermitage.  "  On  Sunday  morning,"  writes  Dr.  Essel 
man,  "on  entering  his  room,  I  found  him  sitting  in  his 
armchair,  with  his  two  faithful  servants,  George  and 
Dick,  by  his  side,  who  had  just  removed  him  from  his 
bed.  I  immediately  perceived  that  the  hand  of  death 
was  upon  him.  I  informed  his  son  that  he  could  survive 
but  a  few  hours,  and  he  immediately  dispatched  a  serv 
ant  for  Major  William  B.  Lewis,  the  general's  devoted 
friend.  Mr.  Jackson  informed  me  that  it  was  the  gen 
eral's  request  that,  in  case  he  grew  worse,  or  was  thought 
to  be  near  his  death,  Major  Lewis  should  be  sent  for,  as 


IN   RETIREMENT. 


321 


he  wished  him  to  be  near  him  in  his  last  moments.  He 
was  instantly  removed  to  his  bed,  but  before  he  could  be 
placed  there  he  had  swooned  away.  His  family  and  ser 
vants,  believing  him  to  be  dead,  were  very  much  alarmed 
and  manifested  the  most  intense  grief ;  however,  in  a 
few  seconds  reaction  took  place,  and  he  became  con 
scious,  and  raised  his  eyes,  and  said  :  '  My  dear  children, 
do  not  grieve  for  me;  it  is  true,  I  am  going  to  leave 
you;  I  am  well  aware  of  my  situation;  I  have  suffered 
much  bodily  pain,  but  my  sufferings  are  but  as  nothing 
compared  with  that  which  our  blessed  Saviour  endured 
upon  that  accursed  cross,  that  we  might  all  be  saved 
who  put  our  trust  in  him.'  He  first  addressed  Mrs. 
Jackson  (his  daughter-in-law),  and  took  leave  of  her,  re 
minding  her  of  her  tender  kindness  manifested  toward 
him  at  all  times,  and  especially  during  his  protracted  ill 
ness.  He  next  took  leave  of  Mrs.  Adams  (a  widowed 
sister  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 
general's  family  for  several  years),  in  the  most  kind  and 
affectionate  manner,  speaking  also  of  her  tender  devo 
tion  toward  him  during  his  illness.  In  conclusion,  he 
said,  'My  dear  children,  and  friends,  and  servants,  I 
hope  and  trust  to  meet  you  all  in  heaven,  both  white 
and  black.'  The  last  sentence  he  repeated — '  both  white 
and  black,'  looking  ato  them  with  the  tenderest  solicitude. 
With  these  words  he  ceased  to  speak,  but  fixed  his  eyes 
on  his  granddaughter,  Rachel  Jackson  (who  bears  the 
name  of  his  own  beloved  wife),  for  several  seconds." 

Major  Lewis  arrived  about  noon.  "  Major,"  said  the 
dying  man,  in  a  feeble  voice,  but  quite  audibly,  "  I  am 
glad  to  see  you.  You  had  like  to  have  been  too  late." 
The  crowd  of  servants  on  the  piazza,  who  were  all  day 
looking  in  through  the  windows,  sobbed,  cried  out,  and 
wrung  their  hands.  The  general  spoke  again:  "What 
is  the  matter  with  my  dear  children  ?  Have  I  alarmed 


322  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

you  ?  Oh,  do  not  cry.  Be  good  children,  and  we  will 
all  meet  in  heaven." 

These  were  his  last  words.  He  lay  for  half  an  hour 
with  closed  eyes,  breathing  softly  and  easily.  Major 
Lewis  stood  close  to  his  head.  The  family  were  about 
the  bed,  silently  waiting  and  weeping.  George  and  the 
faithful  Hannah  were  present.  Hannah  could  not  be 
induced  to  leave  the  room.  "  I  was  born  and  raised  on 
the  place,"  said  she,  "  and  my  place  is  here."  At  six 
o'clock  the  general's  head  suddenly  fell  forward  and  was 
caught  by  Major  Lewis.  The  major  applied  his  ear  to 
the  mouth  of  his  friend,  and  found  that  he  had  ceased  to 
breathe.  He  had  died  without  a  struggle  or  a  pang. 
Major  Lewis  removed  the  pillows,  drew  down  the  body 
upon  the  bed,  and  closed  the  eyes.  Upon  looking  again 
at  the  face,  he  observed  that  the  expression  of  pain  which 
it  had  worn  so  long  had  passed  away.  Death  had  restored 
it  to  naturalness  and  serenity.  The  aged  warrior  slept. 

Two  days  after,  he  was  laid  in  the  grave  by  the  side 
of  his  wife,  of  whom  he  had  said,  not  long  before  he 
died,  "  Heaven  will  be  no  heaven  to  me  if  I  do  not  meet 
my  wife  there."  All  Nashville  and  the  country  round 
about  seemed  to  be  present  at  the  funeral.  Three  thou 
sand  persons  were  thought  to  be  assembled  on  the  lawn 
in  front  of  the  house,  when  Dr.  Edgar  stepped  out  upon 
the  portico  to  begin  the  services.  The  preacher  related, 
with  impressive  effect,  the  history  of  the  late  religious 
life  of  the  deceased,  and  pronounced  upon  his  character 
an  eloquent  but  a  discriminating  eulogium.  A  hymn 
which  the  general  had  loved  concluded  the  ceremonies. 
The  body  was  then  borne  to  the  garden  and  placed  in 
the  tomb  long  ago  prepared  for  its  reception.  "  I  never 
witnessed  a  funeral  of  half  the  solemnity,"  wrote  a  spec 
tator  at  the  time.  The  tablet  which  covers  the  remains 
bears  this  inscription : 


IN   RETIREMENT.  323 

GENERAL 

ANDREW   JACKSON, 

BORN  ON  THE  I5TH  OF  MARCH,  1767, 

DIED  ON  THE  STH  OF  JUNE,  1845. 

When  the  news  of  the  death  of  General  Jackson 
reached  Washington,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
ordered  the  departments  to  be  closed  for  one  day;  and 
Mr.  Bancroft,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  Acting  Sec 
retary  of  War,  directed  public  honors  to  be  paid  to  the 
memory  of  the  ex-President  at  all  the  military  and  naval 
stations.  In  every  large  town  in  the  country  there  were 
public  ceremonies  in  honor  of  the  deceased,  consisting 
usually  of  an  oration  and  a  procession.  In  the  city  of 
New  York  the  entire  body  of  the  uniformed  militia,  all 
the  civic  functionaries,  the  trades  and  societies,  joined 
in  the  parade.  The  record  of  the  solemnities  performed 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  in  honor  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
forms  an  octavo  volume  of  three  hundred  and  three 
pages.  Twenty-five  of  the  orations  delivered  on  this 
occasion,  in  various  towns  and  cities,  were  published  in 
a  volume  entitled  "  Monument  to  the  Memory  of  Gen 
eral  Andrew  Jackson." 

Thus  lived  and  died  Andrew  Jackson,  the  idol  of  his 
party,  often  the  pride  and  favorite  of  his  country.  His 
best  friends  could  not  deny  that  he  had  deplorable  faults, 
nor  his  worst  enemies  that  he  possessed  rare  and  dazzling 
merits.  He  rendered  his  country  signal  services,  and 
brought  upon  the  government  of  that  country  an  evil 
which  it  will  be  extremely  difficult  to  remedy.  No  man 
will  ever  be  quite  able  to  comprehend  Andrew  Jackson 
who  has  not  personally  known  a  Scotch-Irishman.  More 
than  he  was  anything  else,  he  was  a  north-of-Irelander 


324  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

—  a  tenacious,  pugnacious  race  ;  honest,  yet  capable  of 
dissimulation;  often  angry,  but  most  prudent  when  most 
furious  ;  endowed  by  nature  with  the  gift  of  extracting 
from  every  affair  and  every  relation  all  the  strife  it  can 
be  made  to  yield;  at  home  and  among  dependents,  all 
tenderness  and  generosity;  to  opponents,  violent,  un 
generous,  prone  to  believe  the  worst  of  them  ;  a  race 
that  means  to  tell  the  truth,  but,  when  excited  by  anger 
or  warped  by  prejudice,  incapable  of  either  telling,  or 
remembering,  or  knowing  the  truth;  not  taking  kindly 
to  culture,  but  able  to  achieve  wonderful  things  without 
it  :  a  strange  blending  of  the  best  and  the  worst  qualities 
of  two  races.  Jackson  had  these  traits  in  an  exagger 
ated  degree  :  as  Irish  as  though  he  were  not  Scotch  ;  as 
Scotch  as  though  he  were  not  Irish. 

It  was  curious  that  England  and  America  should 
both,  and  nearly  at  the  same  time,  have  elevated  their 
favorite  generals  to  the  highest  civil  station.  Welling 
ton  became  Prime  Minister  in  1827;  Jackson,  President 
in  1829.  Wellington  was  tried  three  years,  and  found 
wanting,  and  driven  from  power,  execrated  by  the  peo 
ple.  His  carriage,  his  house,  and  his  statue,  were  pelted 
by  the  mob.  Jackson  reigned  eight  years,  and  retired 
with  his  popularity  undiminished.  Wellington  was  not 
in  accord  with  his  generation,  and  was  surrounded  by 
men  who  were,  if  possible,  less  so  ;  while  Jackson,  be 
sides  being  in  sympathy  with  the  people,  had  the  great 
good  fortune  to  be  influenced  by  men  who  had  learned 
the  rudiments  of  statesmanship  in  the  school  of  Jefferson, 

Autocrat  as  he  was,  Andrew  Jackson  loved  the  peo- 
pie,  the  common  people,  the  sons  and  daughters  of  toil, 
as  truly  as  they  loved  him,  and  believed  in  them  as  they 
believed  in  him.  He  had  a  perception  that  the  toiling 
millions  are  not  a  class  in  the  community,  but  are  the,1 
community.  He  felt  that  government  should  exist  only 


JJn 


IN   RETIREMENT. 


325 


for  the  benefits  of  the  governed;  that  the  strong  are 
strong  only  that  they  may  aid  the  weak  ;  that  the  rich  are 
rightfully  rich  only  that  they  may  so  combine  and  direct 
the  labors  of  the  poor  as  to  make  labor  more  profitable  to 
the  laborer.    He  did  not  comprehend  these  truths  as  they 
are  demonstrated  by  philosophers,  but  he  had  an  intuitive 
and  instinctive  perception  of   them.     And  in   his  most 
autocratic  moments  he  really  thought  that  he  was  fight 
ing  the  battle  of  the  people,  and  doing  their  will  while 
baffling  the  purposes  of  their  representatives.     If  he  had 
been  a  man  of  knowledge  as  well  as  force,  he  would  have  • 
taken  the  part  of  the  people  more  effectually,  and  left  / 
to  his  successors  an  increased  power  of  doing  good,  in-/ 
stead  of  better  facilities  for  doing  harm. 

The  domestic  life  of  this  singular  man  was  blameless. 
He  was  a  chaste  man  at  every  period  of  his  life.  His 
letters,  of  which  many  hundreds  still  exist,  contain  not 
a  sentence,  not  a  phrase,  not  a  word,  that  a  girl  may 
not  properly  read.  A  husband  more  considerately  and 
laboriously  kind  never  lived.  As  a  father  he  was  only 
too  indulgent;  his  generosity  to  his  adopted  children 
was  inexhaustible.  To  his  slaves  he  was  master,  father, 
physician,  counselor,  all  in  one;  and  though  his  over 
seers  complained  that  he  was  too  lenient,  yet  his  steady 
prosperity  for  so  many  years,  and  the  uniform  abundance 
of  his  crops,  seem  to  prove  that  his  servants  were  not 
negligent  of  their  master's  interest.  He  had  a  virtuous 
abhorrence  of  debt,  and  his  word  was  as  good  as  his 
bond.  In  all  his  private  transactions,  from  youth  to 
hoary  age,  he  was  punctiliously  honest. 

Most  of  our  history  for  the  last  hundred  years  will 
not  be  remembered  for   many  centuries ;  but   perhaps 
among  the  few  things  oblivion  will  spare  may  be  some 
outline  of  the  story  of  Andrew  Jackson — the  poor  Irish  ^ 
immigrant's  orphan  son ;  who  defended  his  country  at 

22 


326  GENERAL  JACKSON. 

New  Orleans,  and,  being  elected  President  therefor,  kept 
that  country  in  an  uproar  for  eight  years;  and,  after 
being  more  hated  and  more  loved  than  any  man  of  his 
day,  died  peacefully  at  his  home  in  Tennessee,  and  was 
borne  to  his  grave  followed  by  the  benedictions  of  a 
large  majority  of  his  fellow-citizens. 


INDEX. 


Ambrister,  Robert  C.f  Indian 
trader,  captured  by  Jackson, 
264 ;  trial  and  execution  of, 
266-268. 

Arbuthnot,  Alexander,  Scotch 
trader  at  Fort  St.  Marks,  ar 
rested  by  Jackson,  262  ;  accused 
of  treachery,  263;  trial  and  ex 
ecution  of,  266-268. 

Bailey,  Captain,  succeeds  Major 
Beasley  in  command  of  Fort 
Mims,  69  ;  death  of,  71. 

Beasley.  Major  Daniel,  commander 
ot  Fort  Mims,  65-68. 

Benton,  Colonel  Thomas  H.,  his 
statement  of  Jackson's  first  mili 
tary  service  under  the  United 
States,  57-59 ;  is  involved  in  a 
"  difficulty  "  with  Jackson,  60- 
62 ;  appointed  lieutenant-colonel, 
United  States  Army,  62  ;  re 
signs  at  close  of  War  of  1812, 63. 

Benton,  Jesse,  has  a  "  difficulty  " 
with  Jackson,  59. 

Burr,  Aaron,  visits  Jackson  at  the 
Hermitage,  44-46  ;  his  opinion 
of  Jackson,  48  ;  arranges  with 
Jackson  for  supplies  and  trans 
portation,  46 ;  his  unlawful  de 
signs  made  public,  47  ;  Jackson 


issues   order  for  arrest  of,  47  ; 
defended  by  Jackson,  47. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  Vice-President 
United  States,  tariff  reformer, 
298  ;  advocate  of  nullification, 
300  ;  counsels  moderation,  308. 

Coffee,  Colonel  John,  business 
partner  of,  and  cavalry  com 
mander  under  Jackson,  51-55  ; 
present  at  affray  between  Jack 
son  and  the  Bentons,  61-63 ; 
commanding  brigade  in  Creek 
campaign  (1813),  78-86;  chastises 
enemy  at  Talluschatches,  84  ; 
attacks  the  Creeks  at  the  Horse 
shoe,  112-116  ;  arrival  at  Mobile 
of,  136  ;  marches  to  New  Or 
leans,  142 ;  commands  in  night 
attack  on  British,  170. 

Cooke,  Captain  John  N.,  British 
army,  account  of  night  affair  at 
New  Orleans,  171  ;  describes 
British  retreat  after  battle  of 
New  Orleans,  234. 

Crockett,  David,  serves  under 
Jackson  as  scout,  79. 

Dale,  Colonel,  commanding  British 
regiment,  his  presentiment  at  the 
battle  of  New  Orleans,  212. 


328 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 


Davie,  Colonel  William  Richard 
son,  6  ;  Jackson  boys  serve 
under,  8. 

Dickinson,  Charles,  duel  with 
Jackson,  33-42. 

Donelson,  Andrew  Jackson, 
nephew  educated  by  Jackson, 
43. 

Eaton,  Major  John  H.,  Secretary 
of  War,  283  ;  involved  in  social 
complications,  282. 

Eaton,  Mrs.,  283-285. 

Gadsden,  Fort,  erected  by  Lieu 
tenant  James  Gadsden,  of  Jack 
son's  staff,  256  ;  Jackson  awaits 
supplies  at,  257. 

Gaines,  General  Edmund  P.,  Unit 
ed  States  Army,  punishes  the 
Seminoles,  259. 

Ghent,  the  Treaty  of,  179. 

Gibbs,  General  Samuel,  commands 
British  troops  at  New  Orleans, 
1 80,  214  ;  death  of,  217. 

Gleig,  Rev.  George  R.,  comments 
on  Jackson's  management  of  the 
New  Orleans  campaign,  vi ;  de 
scribes  the  appearance  of  Jack 
son's  forces  before  battle  of  New 
Orleans,  188  ;  describes  opening 
of  the  battle,  194. 

Harrison,  William  H.,  resigns  his 

commission    as    major-general, 

119. 
Hayne,  Isaac,  Governor  of  South 

Carolina,    announces   his  views 

on  State  rights,  301. 
Henly,  Captain,  commands  United 

States   steamship   Louisiana  at 


New  Orleans,  183  ;  his  report  to 

Commodore  Patterson,  183. 
Houston,     Sam,    private     soldier 

under  Jackson,    108  ;    stoicism 

when  wounded,  113. 
Humbert,    General,    commanding 

troops  under  Jackson   at   New 

Orleans,  227. 
Humphrey,  Captain,  commanding 

American     artillery     at      New 

Orleans,  196. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  nephew  and 
heir  of  General  Jackson,  48. 

Jackson,  Hugh,  brother  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  6. 

Jackson,  General  Andrew,  mili 
tary  capacity,  v-vii  ;  tribute  of  a 
British  officer,  vi,  vii ;  his  favor 
ite  maxims  ;  parentage,  I  ;  his 
father's  poverty,  2  ;  birthplace, 
3  ;  education,  4-7  ;  an  "  old- 
field  school,"  4  ;  boyish  charac 
teristics,  5  ;  not  a  well-informed 
man,  5  ;  takes  part  in  the  Rev 
olutionary  War,  7-16  ;  a  broth 
er  killed  at  Hanging  Rock,  7  ; 
rides  with  Davie's  regiment  as  a 
volunteer,  8  ;  his  Carolina  neigh 
bors,  9';  he  joins  a  partisan  band 
of  "  Whigs,"  10 ;  his  first  en 
counter  with  the  British,  10  ;  a 
prisoner  of  war,  n  ;  resents  an 
insult,  II  ;  wounded,  12  ;  out 
wits  his  captors,  12  ;  sufferings 
in  captivity,  13-15  ;  attacked 
by  small-pox,  15  ;  is  exchanged 
and  returns  home,  15 ;  an  orphan, 
16  ;  curious  turn  of  fortune,  18  ; 
becomes  a  schoolmaster,  18;  stud 
ies  law,  17-20;  office  in  which 


INDEX. 


329 


he  studied  law,  19 ;  licensed 
to  practice  law,  20 ;  personal 
appearance  at  twenty,  20 ;  a 
Tennessee  lawyer,  22  ;  moves  to 
Nashville,  22  ;  public  prosecutor, 
23  ;  marriage,  23  ;  acquire-  real 
estate,  23  ;  delegate  to  Constitu 
tional  Convention,  25  ;  elected 
to  Congress  from  Tennessee,  25; 
horseback  ride  of  eight  hundred 
miles  to  take  his  seat,  25  ;  Wash 
ington's  last  address  to  Congress 
opposed  by,  27  ;  addresses  the 
House,  28  ;  appointed  Senator 
in  1797,  and  resigns  in  1798,  28  ; 
elected  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Tennessee,  29 ;  the 
Jackson-Sevier  feud,  29  ;  major- 
general  of  militia,  30  ;  a  man  of 
business,  30  ;  failure  and  re 
habilitation,  31  ;  the  Hermitage, 
31,  40 ;  "a  man  with  many 
irons  in  the  fire,"  31  ;  "  Trux- 
ton,"  32  ;  "  the  code  "  in  the 
South,  1790-1810,  33  ;  duel  with 
Dickinson,  33-42  ;  effect  on  his 
popularity,  42  ;  his  generous 
hospitality,  44 ;  meets  Aaron 
Burr,  44  ;  his  opinion  of  Burr, 
45  ;  agrees  to  furnish  supplies 
and  transportation  to  Burr,  46  ; 
arrests  Burr,  47  ;  defends  Burr, 
47  ;  adopts  a  nephew,  48 ;  ten 
ders  services  of  his  division  to 
the  General  Government,  49  ; 
accepted  by  President  Madison, 
50  ;  ordered  to  re-enforce  Gen 
eral  Wilkinson,  50 ;  rendezvous 
of  his  troops  at  Nashville,  51  ; 
intense  cold  and  exposure  of  his 
command,  51  ;  composition  of 


his  staff,  52  ;  reports  progress  to 
War  Department,  52  ;  asked  to 
halt  at  Natchez  by  Wilkinson, 
53  ;  command  relieved  from 
further  duty  by  Secretary  of 
War,  54  ;  his  action  in  an  em 
barrassing  position,  56  ;  decides 
to  march  command  back  to 
Tennessee,  56  ;  commendation 
from  the  press,  57 ;  Colonel 
Benton's  statement,  58  ;  has  a 
"  difficulty  "  with  Jesse  Benton, 
59  ;  bitter  correspondence  with 
Thomas  H.  Benton,  60 ;  severely 
wounded,  61  ;  massacre  at  Fort 
Mims,'64  ;  militia  of  Tennessee 
called  out  to  protect  frontier,  74 ; 
insists  upon  taking  the  command, 
76  ;  he  surmounts  great  difficul 
ties  in  mobilizing  his  troops,  77- 
80 ;  adopts  Indian  infant  found 
on  battle-field,  84  ;  Indian  scout's 
disguise,  85  ;  attacks  Indians 
near  Fort  Strother,  87  ;  they  sue 
for  peace,  89  ;  his  response,  89  ; 
privations  of  the  troops,  91  ; 
symptoms  of  revolt,  92  ;  address 
to  his  soldiers,  93  ;  quells  a 
mutiny,  101 ;  he  strikes  a  finish 
ing  blow  at  the  Creeks,  108-117 ; 
appointed  major-general  in  the 
army,  119 ;  his  sudden  good 
fortune,  120  ;  impaired  health, 
121  ;  negotiates  treaty  with  the 
Creeks,  123  ;  defends  Mobile, 
124  ;  drives  the  British  from 
Florida,  125  ;  his  ultimatum  to 
the  Spanish  Governor,  139  ;  re 
port  of  operations,  140  ;  capture 
of  Fort  Barrancas,  141  ;  marches 
upon  New  Orleans,  143  ;  prep- 


330 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 


arations  to  defend  the  city 
against  the  British,  145  ;  organi 
zation  of  local  forces  by,  150 ; 
composition  of  his  forces  to  meet 
the  British,  151  ;  strength  of 
forces  opposed  to,  152;  meets 
the  enemy  half-way,  161 ;  night 
battle,  December  23d,  165  ;  the 
British  proclamation  to  "  Louisi- 
anians,"  165;  shovels  and  wheel 
barrows,  176 ;  he  reconnoitres 
British  position,  181  ;  advance 
of  the  British,  187  ;  second  ad 
vance  of  Pakenham's  troops, 
192  ;  arrival  of  Kentuckian  re- 
enforcements  for,  199  ;  forlorn 
condition  of  those  troops,  200  ; 
generosity  of  citizens  of  New 
Orleans,  204 ;  the  8th  of  Janu 
ary,  208  ;  end  of  the  campaign, 
231  ;  enters  city  of  New  Or 
leans  in  triumph,  238 ;  issues 
proclamation  to  his  army,  240  ; 
orders  French  consul  and  others 
to  leave  the  city,  241  ;  conflict 
with  the  civil  authorities  of 
Louisiana,  242  ;  arrival  of  Gov 
ernment  courier  with  news  of 
peace,  243  ;  notifies  British  com 
mander,  244 ;  appears  in  court 
under  habeas  corpus,  245  ;  sen 
tenced  to  pay  a  fine,  246 ;  re 
turns  to  Nashville,  248  ;  pro 
ceeds  to  Washington,  249  ;  vis 
ited  by  Jefferson,  249 ;  is  re 
tained  as  major-general  in  re 
organization  of  the  army,  250 ; 
popularity  of,  251  ;  ordered  to 
take  the  field  against  the  Semi- 
noles,  255  ;  occupies  the  Span 
ish  fort  St.  Marks,  «6i  ;  ar 


rests  Arbuthnot  as  a  suspicious 
character,  262 ;  captures  Am- 
brister,  tries  and  executes  these 
men,  266-268  ;  resigns  from  the 
army  and  becomes  Governor  of 
Florida,  270  ;  imprisons  Span 
ish  Governor  of  Pensacola,  271  ; 
resigns  office,  271 ;  candidate  for 
President,  273  ;  visits  Washing 
ton,  274  ;  defeated  by  Adams, 
275  ;  revisits  New  Orleans,  276  ; 
magnificent  reception,  276  ;  bit 
ter  political  campaign  of  1828, 
277 ;  elected  President,  279 ; 
death  of  his  wife,  279  ;  inaugu 
ration  of,  282  ;  announces  his 
Cabinet,  282  ;  Eaton-O'Neal  af 
fair,  285  ;  wholesale  removals 
from  office,  288  ;  incident  of 
United  States  Bank,  289;  his 
toast  at  Jefferson's  dinner,  292  ; 
indorses  Van  Buren,  294 ;  ve 
toes  United  States  Bank  Bill, 
595  ;  re-election  to  presidency, 
297 ;  sends  General  Scott  to 
Charleston  to  thwart  nullifiers, 
302  ;  issues  proclamation,  303  ; 
letter  to  a  friend  on  the  crisis, 
309 ;  advocates  new  financial 
policy,  311  ;  extraordinary  popu 
larity  of,  313  ;  farewell  address 
of,  314 ;  in  retirement,  315  ; 
Congress  refunds  fine  imposed 
by  New  Orleans  court  upon, 

317  ;  joins  Presbyterian  Church, 

318  ;     corresponds   with    Com 
modore  Elliott,  319  ;  last  hours 
of,   320 ;  public   demonstration 
at  death  of,  323. 

Jackson,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  the  moth 
er  of  Jackson,  4  ;  her  devotion 


INDEX. 


331 


to  her  sons  and  efforts  to  re 
lease  them,  14-16 ;  her  patriot 
ism,  16  ;  her  death,  16. 
Jones,  Lieutenant  Thomas  Ap 
Catesby,  U.  S.  Navy,  placed  in 
charge  of  gunboat  off  New  Or 
leans,  148  ;  surrenders  to  Brit 
ish,  153. 

Keane,  General  John,  command 
ing  British  advance  at  New  Or 
leans,  153-156  ;  description  of 
the  march,  156-158. 

Kennedy,  Major,  reports  the  ap 
pearance  of  Fort  Mims  after 
massacre,  71. 

Lambert,  General  John,  succeeds 
to  command  of  British  forces  af 
ter  battle  of  New  Orleans,  226  ; 
falls  back  on  his  ships,  232. 

Latour,  Major  A.  Lacarriere,  de 
scribes  return  of  the  American 
troops  to  New  Orleans  after  the 
battle,  236. 

Lawrence,  Major  William,  Second 
U.  S.  Infantry,  gallant  defense 
of  Fort  Morgan  by,  129. 

Lewis,  Major  William  B.,  his 
opinion  of  Jackson's  military 
characteristics,  v ;  quartermas 
ter  of  Jackson's  Tennessee  mili 
tia  (1812),  52. 

McCay,  Spruce,  with  whom  Jack 
son  began  the  study  of  law, 
19. 

Mims,  Fort,  scene  of  Indian  mas 
sacre,  1813,  64  ;  news  of  massa 
cre  at,  72  ;  action  of  Tennessee 
Legislature,  75. 


Mims,  Samuel,  owner  of  the  build 
ing  called  "  Fort  Mims,"  64. 

Mullens,  Colonel,  commands  For 
ty-fourth  Regiment  (British)  at 
New  Orleans,  211. 

New  Orleans,  operations  of  Jack 
son  prior  to  battle  of,  150  ;  land 
ing  of  the  British,  154  ;  ladies 
visit  field-hospitals  after  battle 
of,  236  ;  the  American  army  re 
turns  to,  237. 

Overton,  General  Thomas,  sec 
onds  Jackson  in  Dickinson  duel, 
37-40. 

Pakenham,  General  Sir  Edward, 
takes  command  of  British  forces 
before  New  Orleans,  180 ;  forms 
new  plan  of  campaign,  201 ;  his 
operations  on  the  8th  of  Janu 
ary,  212  ;  death  of,  216. 

Parsons,  Enoch,  Senator,  describes 
effect  of  Fort  Mims  massacre  in 
Nashville,  74. 

Patterson,  Commodore,  U.  S.  Navy, 
commands  fleet  in  vicinity  of 
New  Orleans,  148  ;  co-operates 
with  troops  in  night  attack,  166 ; 
reports  operations,  204. 

Reid,  John,  aide-de-camp,  secre 
tary  and  biographer  of  Jack 
son,  52. 

Robards,  Mrs.  Rachel,  marries 
Andrew  Jackson,  23. 

Scott,  Lieutenant,  Seventh  U.  S. 
Infantry,  attacked  by  Seminoles, 
254- 


332 


GENERAL  JACKSON. 


Shelocta,  Indian  scout  during 
Jackson's  (1813)  Creek  cam 
paign,  81. 

Stokes,  Colonel  John,  with  whom 
Jackson  completed  his  prepara 
tion  for  the  bar,  20. 

Thornton,  Colonel  W.,  command 
ing  British  detachment  at  New 
Orleans,  206. 

Villere,    Major    Gabriel,    notifies 


Jackson  of  the  enemy's  approach 
to  New  Orleans,  159. 

Weatherford,  chief  of  the  Creek 
Indians,  67 ;  leads  attack  on 
Fort  Mims,  70. 

Wilkinson,  General  James,  U.  S. 
Army,  instincts  Jackson  to  halt 
militia  at  Natchez,  53. 

Wilson,  General  James  Grant,  cor 
respondence  and  conversations 
with  Chaplain-General  Gleig, 
vi,  vii.  Note  on  the  author,  viii. 


THE    END. 


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